■3  I'i 


MORALS 
POLITICS  AND 
v\       REUGION 


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in  2010  with  funding  from 
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...THE... 

Man  From  Mars 

HIS  MORALS,  POLITICS 
AND  RELIGION 

BY 

WILLIAM   SIMPSON 


THIRD  EDITION 


Revised  and  Enlarged  by  an  Extended  Preface  and  a 
Chapter  on  Woman  Suffrage 


Press  of 

E.  D.  Beattie,  207  Sacramento  St. 

San  Francisco 


Copyright,  1900.  by  the  Author. 


TO  THE  MEMORY 
OF 

JAMES  LICK 

who,  by  his  munitkent  bequests  to 

SCIENCE,  INDUSTRY,  CHARITY  AND  EDUCATION 

has  indicated  in  the  manner  of  their 
disposal,  that  humanity,  wisdom,  and  enlightenment,  arising 
out  of  the  convictions  of  modern  thought,  which  holds  these, 
his  beneficiaries  to  be  the  noblest  and  divinest  pursuits  of 
mankind,  and  the  only  possible  agencies  in  the  betterment  of 
society. 

This  Book  is  reverently  inscribed 

BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE  TO  THIRD  EDITION 


TO  THIRD  E 


Any  one  advanced  in  life  who  has  enjoyed  opportuni- 
ties of  knowledge  derived  from  association  with  men  and 
books,  and  who  has  an  inclination  to  reach  the  bottom 
of  things  by  his  own  independent  thought,  is  apt  to 
arrive  at  conclusions  regarding  the  world  and  society 
very  different  from  those  which  had  been  early  impressed 
upon  him  by  his  superiors  and  teachers.  From  a  sus- 
picion, at  first  reluctantly  accepted,  but  finally  confirmed 
beyond  a  doubt,  he  finds  that  he  has  been  deceived  in 
many  things.  The  discovery  arouses  no  indignation 
because  he  knows  that  his  early  instructors  were  in  most 
cases  the  victims  of  misdirection  themselves,  and  are 
therefore  not  to  be  held  accountable  for  the  promulgation 
of  errors  which  they  had  mistaken  for  truths.  His  self- 
emancipation  has  so  filled  his  mind  with  a  better  hope 
for  the  future  of  the  world,  and  a  higher  opinion  of  his 
fellow  men,  that  the  delight  and  satisfaction  of  the  dis- 


6  rREFACE. 

covery  overcomes  every  sentiment  except  pity  for  those 
who  had  been  leading  him  astraj',  and  if  the  feeling  of 
condemnation  or  censure  comes  to  his  mind  at  all,  it  is 
only  for  those  few  who  live  and  thrive  upon  those  delu- 
sions having  their  origin  in  the  past,  and  whose  chief  pur- 
pose in  life  is  to  keep  them  alive  and  to  bolster  them  up 
among  the  multitude. 

In  the  new  light  that  has  come  to  him,  the  world  and 
society  have  been  transformed  to  his  view  and  understand- 
ing. He  discovers  goodness  in  many  places  w^here  his 
teachers  had  denied  its  existence,  and  its  definition  has 
become  so  changed,  under  his  broader  \4sion,  that 
humanity  seems  teeming  with  it  everywhere,  and  is  ruled 
by  it,  and  those  departments  of  it  most  affecting  societ}'' 
he  observes  to  be  iticreasing,  and  that  instead  of  like  an 
exotic  in  uncongenial  soil,  hard  to  be  retained  by  man- 
kind, it  is  perpetuated  and  cherished  by  natural  human 
impulses.  He  finds,  also,  that  the  sum  of  badness  in  the 
world  has  been  greatly  exaggerated  by  his  teachers,  and 
that  those  branches  of  it  most  interfering  with  the  welfare 
of  society  are  gradually  being  lessened,  and  are  likely 
to  work  out  their  extinction  by  the  penalties  of  public 
disapproval.     These  con\'ictions  make  the  world  seem  a 


PREFACE.  7 

brighter  and  better  dwelling  place.  They  reveal  to  him 
the  possibilities  of  its  future,  and  tend  to  divert  his  higher 
aims  from  the  obscure  paths  where  tradition  had  been 
leading  them,  into  more  fruitful  channels.  The  truth  will 
have  at  last  dawned  upon  him,  bearing  evidences  in  this 
age  that  none  but  the  unenlightened  can  doubt,  that 
superstition,  during  many  of  the  centuries  past,  has  belit- 
tled the  world,  and  has  discouraged  humanit}^  in  improving 
it,  under  the  mistaken  assumption  of  the  world's  small 
comparative  importance  in  the  great  outcome;  the  circum- 
stantial particulars,  of  which,  it  pretends  to  hold  by  divine 
revelation.  Ha\'ing  rid  himself  of  these  beliefs  by  a  pro- 
cess of  reasoning,  and  the  assistance  of  the  available 
knowledge  of  his  time,  he  arrives  at  the  conclusion  that 
the  best  work  of  humanity  is  not,  altogether  that  taught 
by  the  creeds,  and  that  its  most  divinely  inspired  motives 
are  those  which  tend  to  increase  the  knowledge  of  worldl}' 
things,  those  which  add  to  the  sum  of  goodness  in  society 
by  exhibiting  its  practical  effect  toward  happiness,  and 
those  also  which  assist  in  the  great  end  of  equalizing  the 
burdens  and  enjoyments  of  life  among  all. 

Having  these  conclusions  firml}'  established  in  his  mind, 
and  the  undeserved  reverence  from  early  training  removed, 


8  PREFACE. 

he  becomes  especially  fitted  to  examine  these  old  beliefs, 
and  to  pass  judgment  upon  them,  without  that  taint  of 
blind  de-v'otional  fervor  which  the  unremitted  teaching  of 
many  centuries  has  rendered  current  in  the  world.  He 
observes  of  these  old  beliefs,  that  during  their  supremacy, 
when  their  control  of  society  was  complete  and  unques- 
tioned, the  material  progress  of  mankind  was  least,  with- 
out any  compensating  condition  to  make  up  for  the  dark- 
ness, and  dead  mental  activity  that  had  fallen  upon  it ; 
except  that  apparent  hypnotic  influence  from  the  doctrines 
taught,  which  made  men  careless  of  their  miseries,  and 
indifferent  to  the  things  of  the  earth.  He  obsen-es,  fur- 
ther, of  these  old  beliefs,  that  as  modem  knowledge  reduces 
their  hold  of  authority  among  men,  the  world  improves  as 
it  never  did  before.  Even  charity,  kindness,  and  good 
will  to  men,  adopted,  and  long  taught  as  an  inseparable 
part  of  them,  multiply  more  rapidly  as  their  weight  in 
the  management  of  human  afiairs  grow  less.  From  these 
well  attested  facts  he  arrives  at  the  conviction  that  those 
religious  societies,  founded  upon,  and  which  have  for  cen- 
turies labored  to  perpetuate  these  beliefs,  either  are  not 
possessed  with  all  the  elements  of  human  progress,  or, 
that  having  many  of  such  elements,  they  have  others  of 


PREFACE.  q 

such  neutralizing  and  retarding  eflfect  as  to  render  the  first 
futile  for  such  a  purpose.  That  the  latter  is  the  case, 
every  year  added  to  his  experience  of  life  removes  the 
doubt,  and  explains  to  his  understanding  why  the  religious 
societies  of  the  world  have  failed  in  any  great  degree  to 
advance  the  material  and  intellectual  condition  of  man- 
kind. 

With  a  moral  code,   every  provision  of  which  plainly 
indicates  the  method  of  a  better  social  state,  these  religious 
societies  have  indissolubly  associated  in  their  teachings 
certain  doctrinal  beliefs,  originating  in  a  semi-barbarous 
age,  and    laden   with   its   superstitions,    with   that   fatal 
assumption    of   divine    authority   which    demands   their 
acceptance  every  where  and  for  all  time.      Beliefs  of  such 
unbending   rigidity,  impossible  adaption  or  amendment, 
and  intolerance  of  dissent,  on  account  of  their  pretended 
sacred  character,  that  the  world  has  been  kept  in  a  tur- 
moil discussing  them   since   their  introduction,    and  the 
more  salutory  lessons  of  morality  and  spiritual  hope  have 
been  outranked  and  submerged  by  these  vain  and  profit- 
less discussions.     These  beautiful  and  attractixe  lessons  of 
love,    kindness,    and    charity,    exemplified    and    taught 
through  a  personalit}-,  whose  gift  of  genius  was  to  see, 


lO  PREFACE. 

above  all  other  men,  the  needs  of  humanitj',  have  attracted 
men  and  women  into  these  religious  societies  as  the  hun- 
gry are  attracted  b}^  stores  of  food.  Once  within  their 
lines,  and  imbued  with  the  doctrines  there  found,  they  see 
but  little  abroad  in  the  outside  world  but  the  e\il  spirit 
of  Shoel.  To  them,  its  shadow  rests  upon  much  of  the 
business  of  life,  and  with  increased  obscurity,  upon  many 
of  its  pleasures.  It  even  shows  to  them  among  those 
humanities  which  are  without  their  direction  and  cue.  It 
is  only  however  among  the  many  who  openly  deny  their 
doctrines  and  authority  that  the  evil  spirit  is  seen  bj' 
them  in  all  its  hideous  and  malevolent  personality,  and 
their  especial  mission  is  to  give  battle  in  that  direction. 
Between  he  who  doubts,  no  matter  how  respectfully,  and 
these  religious  societies,  are  drawn  their  lines  of  kindness 
and  charity,  and  with  their  sermons  of  love,  and  their 
protestations  of  good  will  to  mankind  fresh  upon  them, 
they  are  at  any  time,  transformed,  so  far  as  their  relations 
with  a  doubter  are  concerned,  into  a  band  of  hostile 
and  relentless  savages,  with  inflictions  of  punishment, 
measured  in  degree  by  surrounding  enlightenment,  from 
the  actual  barbaric  torture  of  the  savage,  to  mere  social 
ostracism  and  avoidance. 


PREFACI3.  J  J 


If  it  were  the  sole  purpose  of  all  Christian  organiza- 
tions to  bring  into  general  practice  the  civilizing  precepts 
of  their  founder,  they  would  become  the  most  powerful 
agents  in  the  world  to  human  advancement  and  the  bet- 
terment of  social  conditions,  but  these  precepts  are  made 
subordinate  by  them,  and  are  neither  valued  or  estimated 
beyond  their  jurisdiction.     They  count  nothing  as  saving 
qualities  without  the  acknowledgment  of  certain  doctrines 
and  methods  accompanying  them.    Those  beautiful  senti- 
ments  of  charity  and  kindness,  always  so  precious  to  the 
hearts  of  men,  and  growing  more  so  as  the  ages  advance, 
were  not  adopted  nor  promulgated  entirely  for  civilizing 
purposes,  but  mostly  with  the  selfish  view  of  capturing 
humanity   to  church    interests.       With   a   like  purpose, 
knowing  the  mystic  tendency  of  the  masses,  the  super- 
naturalisms,  made  a  part  of  these  attractive  precepts,  were 
adopted  and  upheld;  bringing  into  the  world  an  endless 
multitude  of  barren  illusions,  provoking  acrimonious  con- 
tentions  among  men,  to  no  good  purpose  whatever,  and 
filling  the  pages  of  history  with  a  description  of  scenes 
that  are  a  torture  even  to  the  memory. 

It  is  given   only  to  those  now  living,  and  who  have 
experienced  the  longest  terms  of  life,  to  personally  com- 


12  PREFACE. 

pare  the  past  with  the  present,  so  far  as  their  limited 
sojourn  in  the  world  extends.  They  are  living  witnesses 
to  the  wonderful  changes  in  society  and  its  beUefs  during 
the  short  period  of  two  generations  onl)'.  They  have 
seen  many  of  these  ancient  supernatural  dreams  in  all 
their  power  of  authorit}",  and  have  watched  them  wilt,  and 
finally  disappear,  under  some  silent  influence,  after  argu- 
ment and  reason  had  exhausted  themselves  against  them 
in  vain.  They  have  Ustened  to  those  weekly  expositions 
of  infernal  horrors,  common  at  one  time,  in  all  the  fear 
and  trembhng  of  childhood,  and  have  later,  witnessed  the 
theories  and  beliefs  which  inspired  them,  with  many  others 
equally  obnoxious  to  reason,  relegated  to  silence  and  dis- 
use, as  antiquated  and  worn  furniture,  no  longer  servic- 
able,  is  consigned  to  the  rubbish  heap.  Only  two  genera- 
tions ago  they  have  seen  the  literatiu'e  of  the  churches  in 
leather  bound  books  occupying  the  best  filled,  and  most 
easily  reached  shelves  of  the  libraries,  and  now  laying 
neglected  among  the  dust  of  the  cellars ;  not  one  retained 
for  reference,  and  even  their  titles  forgotten.  They  have 
seen,  in  their  time,  the  clutches  of  superstition  compelled 
to  relax  its  hold  upon  the  throats  of  many  a  worthj- 
human  enterprise.     They  have  witnessed  the  triumph  of 


PREFACE.  1 3 

science  in  its  many  skirmishes  with  tradition,  and  have 
been  interested  lookers-on,  while  the  famous  battle  of  evo- 
lution raged.  They  have  seen  it  from  start  to  finish,  and 
the  amusing  spectacle  of  its  end,  when  theology,  meta- 
phorically speaking,  dragged  its  bruised  and  trembUng 
body  out  of  the  dust ;  and  wiping  the  blood  from  its  pale 
and  troubled  face,  unblushingly  declared,  as  it  had  in 
every  like  outcome  before,  that  there  had  been  no  conflict. 
With  all  this,  and  within  their  own  era  of  two  genera- 
tions only,  they  have  seen  the  world  arise  to  such  pro- 
digies of  advancement,  such  marvels  of  practical  charit}'- 
and  such  activities  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  in  so 
close  and  quick  succession  as  to  fill  them  with  bewilder- 
ment and  wonder,  and  they  will  recognize,  at  least  such 
of  them  as  reflect  upon  the  matter,  that  after  conflicts 
innumerable,  and  setbacks  and  suppressions,  the  scientific 
have  prevailed  over  the  theological  methods,  and  are  at 
work  in  all  the  glories  of  their  triumph,  and  that  the 
ancient  modes  of  thought  are  at  last  masters  of  the  civil- 
ized world  after  nearly  two  thousand  years  of  battle.  The 
thread  of  civilization  has  been  taken  up  and  spliced  at  its 
point  of  rupture  sixteen  centuries  ago.  All  this  activity 
in  the  builduig  of  roads,  bridges  and  aqueducts,  this  tun- 


14  PREFACE. 

nelling  of  mountains  and  rivers,  this  straining  to  make 
available  for  the  services  of  man  all  the  elements  of 
nature,  this  untiring  search  to  increase  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  of  life,  this  higher  regard  for  pure  secular 
learning,  regardless  of  where  it  may  lead,  this  diversion 
of  art  from  the  purposes  of  religious  expression  only,  to 
an  exhibition  of  nature  in  all  her  beautiful  forms,  this 
greater  toleration  of  opinion,  this  coming  back  to  the 
earth  in  short,  after  a  long  period  of  phantom  chasing  in 
the  clouds,  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  revival  of 
paganism.  But  paganism  with  its  brutalities  filtered  out, 
and  the  best,  and  only  civilizing  parts  of  Christianity,  its 
hope  of  immortality,  its  lessons  of  virtue,  its  brotherhood 
and  socialism  retained,  the  superstitions  of  paganism 
buried  forever,  and  those  of  Christianity  gradually  drop- 
ping one  by  one  into  their  graves. 

He,  who  now  at  three  score  and  ten,  remembers  when 
the  sound  of  the  flint  and  steel  was  a  necessary  prelude  to 
the  morning  fire,  when  the  open  fire  place  with  its  crane 
and  pot  hooks  was  the  only  resourse  for  warmth  and  cook- 
ing, when  the  largest  city  on  the  American  continent  was 
without  sewers  or  water  conduits,  when  a  river  steamer 
was  a  wonder  upon  which  the  curious  gazed,  and  ocean 


PREFACE.  15 

ones  unheard  of,  when  railroads  were  in  an  experimental 
stage,  when  the  belief  that  ghosts  flitted  about  the  grave- 
yards was  unquestioned  and  undenied,  when  Satan  was 
said  to  have  stalked  upon  the  earth  in  person,  his  presence 
seriously  considered  and  accounted  for  by  many  of  the 
churches,  when  witchcraft,  only  in  the  throes  of  death 
but  not  yet  buried,  had  many  adherents  in  animated 
defence,  when  the  electrical  experiments  of  Franklin  were 
reckoned  in  some  places  as  the  trifling  of  an  infidel  with 
the  spirit  of  evil,  can  best  appreciate,  by  the  comparison 
which  reminiscence  affords,  of  these  wonderful  changes 
in  thought,  and  the  significant  accompaniment  of  increased 
mental  activity  in  all  things  benefitting  the  race.  The 
close  relations  exhibited  in  this  comparitively  brief  period 
between  the  growth  of  rationalism,  and  that  accelerated 
movement  all  along  the  line  of  science,  learning,  and 
everything  tending  to  place  humanity  on  a  higher  plain, 
is  more  than  a  mere  coincidence.  It  is  the  operation  of 
cause  and  effect,  better  understood  and  acknowledged 
upon  a  closer  examination. 

The  bursting  forth,  as  it  were,  during  this  century  of 
the  united  energies  of  mankind  in  the  direction  of  knowl- 
edge, is  an  expansion  after  the  removal  of  a  pressure  that 


1 6  PREFACE. 

has  borne  down  upon  them  for  ages.  Those  great  things 
that  men  have  accomplished  lately,  they  were  as  capable 
of  centuries  ago,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  had 
not  until  recently  made  grater  advances,  when  we  esti- 
mate the  weight  of  opposing  forces.  There  had  been  for 
centuries  nothing  more  discouraging  to  the  formation  of 
scientific  hopes  and  ambitions  than  the  theological  meth- 
ods of  thought,  and  the  atmosphere  which  surronded 
them.  The  more  that  atmosphere  was  saturated  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  churches,  the  more  repellent  it  was  to 
any  intellectual  effort  toward  outside  things,  and  especi- 
ally one  requiring  such  a  monopoly  of  mental  energy  and 
attention  as  to  interfere  with  the  Christian  ideas  of  con- 
stant and  unremitting  devotion.  There  was  no  cultivated 
field,  during  the  thousand  years  of  supreme  church  juris- 
diction, where  an  independent  scientific  ambition  could 
germinate.  Within  the  church  such  an  ambition  was 
impossible.  It  was  not  only  against  the  spirit,  but  the 
very  letter  of  its  teachings.  Its  foundation  was  laid  by 
its  victory  over  science,  in  its  overcome  of  which,  it  pro- 
claimed divine  assistance  and  authority.  It  already  pos- 
sessed a  knowledge  of  all  things  appertaining  to  the  earth 
and    the    "firmament"    above    it   which   the   Almighty 


PREFACE.  17 

desired  men  to  know.  The  earth  was  not  round,  it  was 
the  center  of  the  universe.  It  stood  still  while  the  sun 
moved  daily  over  its  surface,  getting  back  each  morning 
into  its  place  with  the  help  of  angels.  The  rainbow  was 
a  sign  placed  in  the  heavens  for  a  purpose.  Every  known 
phenomenon  of  nature  was  accounted  for  by  scriptural 
reference.  The  method  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and 
the  origin  of  man  and  of  woman  also,  the  church  pos- 
sessed in  circumstantial  detail.  The  moment  true  science 
began  its  work,  and  ran  counter  to  any  of  this  fund  of 
knowledge,  assumed  to  have  been  furnished  by  the 
Almight}^  the  trouble  began.  But  the  trouble  was  not 
altogether  with  the  honest  investigator.  If  his  discovery 
tended  to  disprove  what  was  known  as  scriptural  truth, 
and  inadvertently  had  been  allowed  to  gain  the  public 
ear,  every  prelate  in  the  church  began  contriving  to 
refute  it.  A  new  opportunity  for  fame  was  opened  to 
every  ambitious  theologian,  and  there  immediately  began 
in  rebuttal  a  spinning  of  texts,  and  a  style  of  metaphys- 
ical argument,  from  one  end  of  the  church  to  the  other, 
which  remain  to  this  day  as  the  most  remarkable  curiosi- 
ties of  sinuous  reasoning  and  constrained  thought  on 
record.     All  questions  of  a  scientific  character  had  but 


I8  PREFACE. 

one  method  of  settlement,  were  they  authorized  or  denied 
b}'  scripture  ?  If  denied  as  they  usually  were,  the  dis- 
turber was  either  burned  at  the  stake  or  made  to  recant. 
Fame,  that  chief  incentive  to  all  high  effort,  offered  none 
of  its  rewards  beyond  theological  circles,  and  during  the 
ten  centuries  of  complete  church  supremacy,  any  advance 
in  knowledge  which  did  not  stir  the  animosity  of  theo- 
logians gained  less  public  attention  and  applause  than  the 
wearing  of  a  hair  shirt  or  a  crown  of  thorns.  During  a 
thousand  years  the  church  had  kept  the  world  slumber- 
ing in  the  darkness  of  barbarism  and  superstition  punish- 
ing with  death  those  it  could  not  convince.  Any  doubter 
of  generally  accepted  beliefs,  either  in  religion  or  science, 
who  can  support  his  position  with  plausable  argument,  is 
entitled  at  least  to  the  consideration  of  being  a  thinker. 
The  constant  taking  off  of  every  such  one,  during  a  term 
counted  by  centuries,  could  have  no  other  effect  than  to 
reduce  the  average  of  intellectual  vigor  in  the  whole. 
The  husbandman,  who  removes  from  his  acres  of  growing 
grain  the  tallest  and  heaviest  stalks,  and  instead  of  saving 
them  for  seed,  destroys  them,  insures,  in  time,  the  mis- 
fortune of  dwarfed  fields  and  diminished  harvests.  The 
church,  since  its  complete  \'ictory  over  paganism  in  the 


PREFACE.  19 

fourth  century,  had  not  produced  with  its  supreme  control 
over  all  learning  a  single  noted  man  of  science,  or  one 
promising  to  be  such,  whom  it  had  not  either  suppressed 
or  tortured  to  death,  not  a  painter  or  poet  who  had  not 
devoted  his  genius  principally  to  superstition  or  sensual- 
ity, not  a  historian  whose  veracity  is  not  doubted,  and 
not  a  single  towering  man  of  letters.  This,  too,  in  a  peo- 
ple, among  whom  mingled  the  decendants  of  the  Greek 
masters  of  literature  and  philosophy.  When,  about  four 
centuries  ago,  secular  learning  and  free  thought  began 
their  first  open  advances  since  pagan  days,  the  church, 
finding  in  every  such  movement  some  disturbance  of  its 
traditions,  and  making  no  accotmt  of  their  benefit  to  man- 
kind, brought  all  its  powers  to  bear  for  their  suppression. 
In  trying  to  do  so  it  pursued  the  same  cruel  policy  it  had 
adopted  in  former  contests.  These  cruelties  and  intimi- 
dations were  practiced  at  a  time  when  within  the  church 
were  openly  perpetrated  corruptions  of  the  most  glaring 
character;  which  together,  loosened  its  hold  upon  the 
consciences  of  men,  and  made  possible  that  revolt  and 
di\dsion  known  as  the  Reformation,  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century.      Coming  nearer  our  own  time,  and  having  to 


20  PREFACE. 

deal  with  theological  conditions  not  yet  entirely  removed, 
a  little  more  detail  is  necessary'. 

The  quarter  century  before  and  the  century  following 
the  Reformation  was  a  remarkable  era  in  the  world's  his- 
tory. It  was  noted  throughout  as  a  desperate  and  con- 
tinuous struggle  by  men  of  science  to  dispel  the  darkness 
that  had  so  long  enveloped  the  Christian  world.  The  art 
of  printing,  then  recently  discovered,  and  just  coming 
into  practical  working  effect,  and  the  thoughts  of  men 
thereby  communicated  from  one  to  the  rest  with  a  facility 
never  before  known,  had  the  effect  of  arousing  mental 
activities  everywhere.  From  a  load  only  partially  removed 
men  began  exploring  regions  of  science  that  had  been 
interdicted,  and  a  great  movement  in  positive  knowledge 
began.  The  most  enlightened  men  of  the  time  went  over 
to  the  Reformation,  and  if  within  that  body,  they  had 
found  the  shelter  and  encouragement  they  deser\'ed,  the 
sixteenth  century  and  the  one  following  it  would  have 
been  the  most  brilliant  period  on  record  except  our  own, 
for  scientific  discoveries  and  the  world's  advancement. 
Such  a  conclusion  is  justified  by  taking  note  of  the  won- 
derful men  of  genius  who  came  into  the  world  during 
that  time,  who,  with  all  the  restrictions  and  limitations 


PRBPACE.  21 

cast  about  them  by  the  two  churches,  laid  such  new  foun- 
dations in  truth  and  learning,  that  nothing  was  to  be  done 
by  subsequent  workers  in  the  same  lines  but  build  upon 
them.  BufFon,  who  may  justlj'-  be  called  the  father  of 
natural  science,  with  powers  of  research  and  gifts  of 
presenting  results  showing  genius  of  a  high  order,  by  his 
simple  statement  of  truths  which  are  to  day  truisms  in 
science,  was  dragged  forth  by  the  leaders  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  forced  to  recant  publicly  and  to  print  his  recant- 
ation. "I  abandon  everything  in  my  book  respecting  the 
formation  of  the  earth,  and  generally  all  which  may  be 
contrary  to  the  narrative  of  Moses."  Linnaeus,  the 
founder  of  a  scientific  system  in  botany,  and  the  discov- 
erer of  sex  in  plants,  was  constantly  hampered  and  con- 
strained in  his  thoughts  by  the  threats  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. A  pretended  miracle  of  turning  water  into  blood 
appeared  in  his  vicinitj^,  and  after  looking  into  it  carefully 
he  reported  that  the  reddening  of  the  water  was  caused 
by  dense  masses  of  minute  insects.  When  news  of  this 
explanation  reached  the  ears  of  the  Protestant  bishop  he 
denounced  this  scientific  discovery  as  a  "Satanic  Abyss." 
"When  God  allov/s  such  a  miracle  to  take  place,"  said 
he,    "Satan   endeavors,    and   so   does    his   ungodly   and 


22  PREFACE. 

worldly  tools,  to  make  it  signify  nothing."  Descartes, 
the  founder  of  modern  philosophy,  and  ranked  among  the 
foremost  mathematicians  of  his  day,  yet,  his  constant 
dread  of  persecution  from  Protestantism  led  him  steadily 
to  veil  his  thoughts,  and  to  suppress  them  when  they 
threatened  to  interfere  with  theological  beliefs.  Leibnitz, 
the  great  thinker,  who  came  so  near  to  the  discov- 
ery of  evolution,  Spinoza,  and  later  Hume,  Kepler,  Kant, 
Newton  and  many  others,  which  want  of  space  prevents 
mention  were  likely  to  have  done  much  more  for  science 
had  not  the  theological  atmosphere  of  the  Christian 
churches  been  so  unpropituous. 

The  true  story  of  Galileo,  the  monumental  shame  of 
Christianity,  cannot  be  told  without  implicating  the 
younger  with  the  older  church.  The  Reformation  looked 
on  complaisantly  and  approvingly  while  this  crime  was 
being  committed.  It  was  in  complete  accordance  with  its 
beliefs  and  methods.  The  Copernician  system,  on  account 
of  the  adoption  of  which,  Galileo  was  persecuted  was  as 
strenuously  and  bitterly  denounced  by  Protestants  as 
Catholics.  Luther  says  "People  gave  ear  to  an  upstart 
astrologer,  who  strove  to  show  that  the  earth  revolved, 
and  not  the  sun  and  moon.     This  fool  wishes  to  revise 


PREFACE.  23 

the  whole  system  of  astronomy,  but  sacred  scripture  tells 
us  that  Joshua  commanded  the  sun  to  stand  still,  and  not 
the  earth."  The  recantation  of  this  venerable  scientist, 
worn  out  with  imprisonment  and  sorrow,  and  in  fear  of 
torture  and  death,  is  as  follows  :  "I  Galileo,  being  in  mj' 
seventieth  year,  being  a  prisoner  on  my  knees  before 
your  eminences,  having  before  my  eyes  the  Holy  Gospel, 
which  I  touch  with  my  hands,  abjure,  curse  and  detest 
the  error  and  the  heresy  of  the  movement  of  the  earth. ' " 
As  the  sphericity  of  the  earth  was,  suggested  by  Aristotle, 
and  its  movement  had  been  a  matter  of  earnest  discussion 
by  theologians  for  ages,  we  see  fit  to  transcribe  here  the 
argument  of  one  of  them,  made  a  long  time  ago  it  is  true, 
but  nevertheless  a  fair  sample  of  the  theological  methods 
of  thought.  It  is  copied  from  a  book  written  by  one 
Scipio  Chiaramonti,  and  dedicated  to  Cardinal  Barberini. 
' '  Animals  which  move  have  limbs  and  muscles,  the  earth 
has  no  limbs  and  muscles,  therefore  it  does  not  move.  It 
is  angels  who  make  Saturn,  Jupiter,  the  Sun,  etc.,  turn 
round.  If  the  earth  revolves  it  must  also  have  an  angel 
in  the  center  to  set  it  in  motion;  but  only  devils  live 
there ;  it  would  therefore  be  a  devil  who  would  impart 
motion  to  the  earth."      All  branches  of  the  Protestant 


24  PREPACK. 

church  condemned  the  theorj^  of  the  earth's  movement, 
Calvin  asked,  ' '  Who  will  venture  to  place  the  authorit)^ 
of  Copernicus  above  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ? ' '  Wesley 
also  denounced  the  new  theor>',  declaring  it  to  "tend 
toward  infidelity."  The  grand  men  who  were  coming 
forward  in  their  efforts  to  advance  knovv'ledge  unavoid- 
ably encroached  upon  many  of  the  * '  truths  of  scripture ' ' 
and  both  churches  were  equally  engaged  in  their  efforts 
to  suppress  them,  bj^  argument  if  possible,  but  if  not,  by 
fire  and  stake.  The  Protestant  chturch,  which  has  always 
made  a  claim  of  especial  enlightenment,  vied  with  the 
other  in  its  cruel  and  relentless  warfare  upon  what  is 
known  among  the  churches  as  heresy,  the  proper  definition 
of  which  is  reason  and  common  sense.  We  have  said  that 
the  case  of  Galileo  was  the  monumental  shame  of 
Christendom ;  the  case  of  Servitus  was  a  monumental 
crime,  which  Protestantism  alone  must  answer  for. 

The  persecution  of  Michael  Servetus  by  John  Calvin, 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation,  was  one  of  the 
most  unjust  and  inhuman  exercises  of  religious  authority 
that  the  world  has  seen.  There  were  many  features  in 
this  tragedy  of  burning  at  the  stake,  that  were  out  of  the 
common.     The  victim  was  a  man  of  unblemished  char- 


PREFACE.  25 

acter,  of  great  learning,  and  a  scientist,  with  a  genius  for 
investigation.     He  was  a  skilled  practitioner  of  medicine, 
out  of  which  profession  he  derived  his  income.      He  had 
made  some  advances  in  medical  science,  coming  so  near 
to  a  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  that  it  is 
quite  likely,  but  for  his  untimely  death,  he  would  have 
reached  it  instead  of  Harvey,  many  years  afterward.    His 
active  mind  had  led  him  to  devote  much  of  his  leisure  to 
the  study  of  theology,  and,  laboring  among  its  problems, 
he  strove  to  reconcile  a  number  of  orthodox  beliefs  and 
doctrines  with  the  scientific  knowledge  of  his  time,  not 
combating  them  or  contriving  at  their  destruction,  but  by 
changing  the  sense  of  words,  to  make  them  apparently 
accord  with  known  elements  of  truth.     He  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  the  Reformation,  and  a  friend  and  admirer  of 
Calvin,  and  he  began  and  maintained  for  some  time,  a 
correspondence  with  him,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  his 
advice  and  support.      The  proposed  modification  in  the 
sense  of  scriptural  texts,  was  not  favorably  received  by 
Calvin,  and   the    two   were    drawn   into  a   controversy, 
which  finally  became  acrimonious.     The  world,  at  present, 
partially   recovered  from  its   long   period  of  hypnotized 
reason,  is  able  to  appreciate  the  small  value  of  the  ques- 


26  PREFACE. 

tious  which  engaged  these  two  men,  and  which  led  one  to 
strike  the  other  down  to  death,  and  it  is  also  able  to  judge 
how  much  Servetus  was  in  advance  of  his  adversary  in 
their  discussions. 

Calvin  maintained,  that  under  instructions  from  God, 
through  the  Bible,  an  infant,  dying  without  baptism, 
could  not  escape  the  tortures  of  Hell,  a  locality  described 
by  the  same  authority,  as  a  place  of  horrors,  of  endless 
burning  amid  sulphurous  fires,  of  never  ending  thirst, 
and  of  a  "weeping,  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth" 
through  all  time  to  come.  Servetus  expressed  his  doubts 
of  the  justice  of  this  infliction  upon  sinless  infants,  and 
attempted  to  show  that  it  was  not  authorized  by  the 
Sacred  Book.  He  also  denied  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  as  it  was  commonly  received.  He  did  not  deny 
a  kind  of  Trinity  in  the  unity  of  God,  but  believing  that 
it  was  merely  formal,  and  not  personal,  mere  distinctions 
in  the  divine  essence,  and  that,  as  generally  understood, 
it  was  a  dream,  and  an  invention  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church.  He  also  asserted,  upon  good  authority,  that 
there  was  a  Christian  doctrine  before  there  was  an}'  adop- 
tion of  the  Hebrew  legends  ;  that  these  legends  did  not 
become  a  part  of  the  church,  until  nearly  a  century  after 


PREFACE.  27 

the  great  moral  teacher  had  met  his  cruel  death.  He  also 
came  as  near  as  he  dared,  to  expressing  his  belief,  that 
the  Son  was  merely  a  man,  with  the  divine  inspiration  in 
a  large  degree.  Such  advanced  ideas  as  these,  asserted 
with  the  positiveness  of  coniiction,  and  backed  with 
unanswerable  argument,  were  the  cause  of  his  undoing. 
Calvin,  at  this  time,  was  at  the  head  of  a  church 
already  powerful.  He  ruled  it  with  an  autocratic  will, 
and  upon  all  questions  of  doctrinal  beliefs,  he  was  the 
last  court  of  appeal.  He  had  long  accepted  the  homage 
of  his  followers,  as  one  selected  by  the  Almighty  for  their 
spiritual  guidance,  and,  with  the  common  weakness  of 
humanity,  he  became  arbitrary'  and  despotic  in  his  man- 
agement of  church  affairs.  He  was  always  ready  to 
advise  and  direct,  and  in  his  first  letters  to  Servetus, 
assumed  some  show  of  argument  while  denying  his 
doctrines.  Servetus  answered  him,  not  with  that  defer- 
ence that  his  adversary  usually  received,  but  in  all  the 
spirit  of  earnest  debate.  Nothing  more  exasperating  to 
Calvin  could  have  occurred,  and  to  cap  the  climax  of 
affront,  his  adversar>%  a  mere  layman,  published  a  book 
"Christianity  Restored"  setting  forth  his  advanced  views, 
and  with  a  reckless  temerity,  sent  the  reformer  a  copy. 


28  PREFACE. 

The  controversy  between  them  immediately  degenerated 
into  mutual  recrimination  and  abuse.  Calvin's  anger 
was  raised  to  a  white  heat,  when  he  saw  the  errors  and 
blasphemies,  as  he  regarded  them,  and  which  he  had 
vainly  sought  to  combat,  confided  to  the  printed  page, 
and  thrown  broadcast  upon  the  world.  Besides  the  alleged 
heretical  matter  of  the  book,  he  found  himself  taken  to 
task,  declared  to  be  in  error,  and  his  most  cherished  doc- 
trines controverted.  But  he  discovered  withal  some 
matter  in  the  book  which  pleased  him.  His  enemy  had 
committed  himself  in  abusing  the  Papacy:  evidence 
sufficient  to  convict  him  at  once  of  blasphemy  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  city  of  Vienne  in  France  where  Ser\'etus 
then  resided,  and  he  proceeded  at  once  to  put  the  cruel 
scheme  of  his  death  into  execution.  By  information  to 
the  authorities  at  Vienne  through  dictated  letters,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  having  Servetus  thrown  into  prison  there,  from 
whence  he  escaped,  and  became  an  outcast  for  months. 
The  malignant  and  inhuman  manner  in  which  this 
Christian  leader  followed  his  innocent  victim,  could 
scarcely  have  occurred  upon  any  other  question  but  a 
religious  one,  and  his  murderous  intent,  from  the  first, 
is  shown  by  a  letter  from  Calvin  to  a  friend  in  which  he 


PREFACE.  29 

says,  "Servetus  wrote  to  me  lately,  and  besides  his  letter 
sent  me  a  great  volume  of  his  ravings,  telling  me,  with 
audacious  arrogance,  that  I  should  find  there  things  stu- 
pendous and  unheard  of  until  now.  He  offers  to  come 
thither  if  I  approve ;  but  I  will  not  pledge  my  faith  to 
him ;  for,  did  he  come,  if  I  have  any  authority  here,  ' '  I 
SHOULD  NEVER  SUFFER  HIM  TO  GO  AWAY  AEIVE."  And 
he  proved  himself,  in  this  instance,  true  to  his  word. 

The  Roman  Catholic  authorities  of  Vienne,  discovering 
after  a  while  the  connivance  of  Calvin,  in  putting  the 
execution  of  his  enemy  on  them,  contrived,  it  is  said,  to 
make  his  escape  easy.  They  had  no  mind  to  have  this 
work  thrust  upon  them.  They  probably  felt  that  the 
reformers  should  take  care  of  their  own  heretics.  Ser- 
vetus, after  his  escape,  wandered  about  from  place  to 
place,  all  the  time  his  life  in  imminent  danger,  and 
finally  brought  up  in  Geneva,  the  home  of  Calvin,  dis- 
guising himself,  and  hiding  in  the  outskirts.  What 
induced  him  to  take  such  desperate  chances  is  not  posi- 
tively known.  His  intention  is  supposed  to  have  been  to 
go  to  Naples,  and  to  be  gone  from  Geneva  on  the  first  favor- 
able opportunity.  Weary  of  confinement,  and  always 
piousl}'  inclined,  he  ventured  imprudently  to  show  himself. 


30  PREFACE. 

at  the  evening  sen^ice  of  a  neighboring  church,  and  being 
there  recognized,  intimation  of  his  presence  was  conveyed 
to  Calvin,  who,  without  loss  of  a  moment,  demanded  his 
immediate  arrest,  making  his  arraignment  himself,  and 
industriously  working  until  the  end,  as  chief  prosecutor 
and  witness.  The  barbaric  cruelty  during  imprisonment 
to  this  famous  man,  in  an  eminently  Christian  community, 
and  by  a  Christian  leader  is  shown  by  the  following  letter 
from  his  prison  cell.  "  Most  noble  I^ords,  it  is  now  three 
weeks  since  I  petitioned  for  an  audience,  and  I  have  to 
inform  you  that  nothing  has  been  done,  and  I  am  in  a 
more  filthy  plight  than  ever.  In  addition,  I  suffer  terri- 
bly from  the  cold,  and  from  colic  and  my  rupture,  which 
causes  me  miseries.  It  is  very  cruel  that  I  am  neither 
allowed  to  speak,  nor  not  have  my  most  pressing  wants 
supplied ;  for  the  love  of  God  sirs,  in  pity  give  orders  in 
mj'  behalf. ' '  And  here  is  another  one :  ' '  M}'  most 
honored  I^ords,  I  humbly  entreat  of  you  to  put  an  end  to 
these  great  delays,  or  to  exonerate  me  of  the  criminal 
charge.  You  must  see  that  Calvin  is  at  his  wits  ends,  and 
knows  not  what  more  to  say,  but  for  his  pleasure,  would 
have  me  rot  here  in  prison.  The  lice  eat  me  up  alive, 
my  breeches  are  in  rags,  and  I  have  no  change,  no  doub- 


PREFACE.  -J 


let,  and   but  a  single  shirt  in   tatters."       Thirty-eight 
articles  of  impeachment  were  drawn  up  by  Calvin,  and 
after  a  protracted  trial,  wherein  he  acted  as  chief  interro- 
gator, this  unhappy  victim  was  sentenced  to  be  burnt  at 
the   stake.     Servetus,    during    his    whole    examination, 
showed   himself  to  be  a   brave,    conscientious,    religious 
man.     His  answers  to  each  one  of  the  articles  was  able, 
consistent,  and  would  have  been  considered  in  this  day 
unanswerable,    and   what   is   more  his  views  have  since 
been  adopted  by  the  most  advanced  of  the  Christian  sects. 
The  following  is  a  description  of  his  execution  recorded 
at  that  time. 

"  When  he  came  in  sight  of  the  fatal  pile,  the  wretched 
Servetus  prostrated  himself  on  the  ground  and  for  a  while 
was  absorbed  in  prayer.  Rising  and  advancing  a  few 
steps  he  found  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  executioner, 
by  whom  he  was  made  to  sit  on  a  block,  his  feet  just 
reaching  the  ground.  His  body  was  then  bound  to  the 
stake  behind  him  by  several  turns  of  an  iron  chain,  whilst 
his  neck  was  secured  in  Hke  manner  by  the  coil  of  a 
hempen  rope.  His  two  books-the  one  in  manuscript 
sent  to  Calvin  in  confidence  six  or  eight  years  before  for 
his   stricture,  and   a   copy  of  the   one   lately   printed   at 


32  PREFACE. 

Vienne — were  fastened  to  his  waist,  and  his  head  was 
encircled  in  mockery  with  a  chaplet  of  straw  and  green 
twigs  bestrewed  with  brimstone.  The  deadly  torch  was 
then  applied  to  the  fagots  and  flashed  in  his  face ;  and 
the  brimstone  catching,  and  the  flames  rising,  wrung  from 
the  victim  such  a  cry  of  anguish  as  struck  terror  into  the 
surrounding  crowd.  After  this  he  was  bravely  silent ; 
but  the  wood  being  purposely  green,  although  the  people 
aided  the  executioner  in  heaping  the  fagots  upon  him,  a 
long  half  hour  elapsed  before  he  ceased  to  show  signs  of 
life  and  sufi^ering.  Immediately  before  giving  up  the 
ghost,  with  a  last  expiring  eflbrt  he  cried  aloud,  ' '  Jesus, 
thou  Son  of  the  eternal  God,  have  compassion  upon  me ! ' ' 
All  was  then  hushed,  save  hissing  and  crackling  of  the 
green  wood,  and  by  and  by  there  remained  no  more  of 
what  had  been  Michael  Servetus,  but  a  charred  and 
blackened  trunk,  and  a  handful  of  ashes."  So  died  in 
advance  of  his  age,  this  victim  of  religious  fanaticism  and 
personal  hate,  a  fitting  triumph  of  the  theological  over  the 
scientific  methods  of  thought,  the  result  among  many 
thousands  like  it  of  the  adoption  of  the  Jewish  legends 
by  Christianity,  and  in  this  case,  brought  about  by  a 
Christian  leader,  the  founder  of  a  creed,    in  which  to  this 


PREFACE.  33 

day,  enough  of  his  spirit  remains  to  make  it  the  greatest 
enemy  of  free  thought  and  liberal  opinion,  among  all  the 
creeds  of  Protestantism.  Of  this  disgraceful  tragedy  was 
it  the  spirit  of  the  Master  which  led  the  inhuman  crowd  to 
vie  with  each  other  in  piling  on  the  fagots,  or  was  it  the 
malign  influence  of  a  vindictive  and  cruel  Hebrew  God  ? 
Every  conflict  between  science  and  theology  since  the 
days  of  Copernicus  has  resulted  in  an  unequivocal  victory 
for  the  former.  Both  churches  resisted  the  truth  of  the 
rotundity  and  movement  of  the  earth  as  though  their 
existence  depended  upon  it.  They  fought  each  question 
as  it  arose  in  the  same  spirit.  The  Mosaic  account  of  the 
creation,  the  age  of  the  world,  the  deluge,  the  length  of 
man's  sojourn  upon  the  earth,  are  questions  as  effec- 
tively settled  adversely  to  the  "truths  of  scripture"  as 
the  one  for  which  Galileo  suffered.  And  yet  Christianity 
lives,  and  will  continue  to  live  and  flourish,  solely  on 
account  of  the  inherent  and  increasing  affinity  of  the  human 
heart  as  civilization  advances  for  the  precepts  and  ex- 
ample of  its  founder.  If  Christianity  were  destined  to 
fall  by  the  undermining  of  its  legends  it  would  fall  now 
with  the  recent  destruction  of  one  upon  which  its  exis- 
tence  appeared  to  depend,  which   has,  more  than  any 


34  PREFACE. 

Other,  shaped  its  course  and  laid  the  foundation  of  its 
rituals.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  now  established  as  a 
truth  is  the  most  serious  and  apparently  destructive  one 
that  theology  ever  met.  The  fact  that  man  has  arisen 
from  a  condition  of  brutality,  instead  of  fal,len 
from  a  state  of  perfection  is,  to  ecclesiasticism,  a  raking 
blow  from  stem  to  stern,  compared  with  all  previous  bat- 
tles with  science  as  the  shot  of  a  modern  thirty-two 
pounder  with  old  fashioned  ordinance.  The  legend  of 
the  fall  of  man,  compared  with  all  others,  is  the  vilest. 
It  was  brought  from  Assyria,  by  the  Hebrews,  who 
obtained  it  during  their  captivity,  from  a  barbarous  people, 
among  whom  it  was  current  for  ages,  and  was  thus 
inserted  in  our  Sacred  Book,  proofs  of  which  have  recently 
been  found  in  deciphering  the  Ninevite  records.  A  sus- 
picion is  not  entirely  without  warrant  that  it  ma)^  have 
been  adopted  with  a  purpose  of  creating  miseries  and 
sorrows  in  the  multitude  for  the  profitable  occupation  of 
a  divinel}''  authorized  few  in  the  buisness  of  consoling 
them,  and  right  well  has  it  fulfilled  its  mission.  It  has 
changed  the  facial  expression  of  Christendom.  It  has 
deepened  the  furrows  of  sorrow  upon  old  age,  and  fixed 
lines  of  care  upon  the  features  of  youth.     It  has  brought 


PRKFACS.  35 

the  undeserved  dejection  of  criminality,  and  the  downcast 
of  shame,  where  of  right  belongs  the  reflection  of  hope- 
fulness and  the  light  of  expectancy.  It  has  incalculably 
multiplied  the  sorrows  of  life,  and  created  for  each  death 
a  nightmare  of  imaginary  horrors.  This  legend  is 
the  foundation  and  inspiration  of  most  of  the  evil 
and  cruelty  that  Christianity  has  inflicted  on 
human  kind.  Fabulous  itself,  it  has  been  the  parent  of 
unrealities,  witchcraft  and  magic  for  instance,  from  which 
millions  of  innocent  victims  have  been  sacrificed  to  torture 
and  death.  It  has  transformed  reasonable  enjoyments  of 
life  into  crimes  by  the  invention  of  a  word,  which  with 
the  latitude  given  its  definition,  has  kept  in  trembling 
uncertainty  the  innocent  and  harmless.  To  the  parent  it 
has  bestowed  the  agony  of  dread  for  the  fate  of  departed 
offspring,  guileless  infants,  as  well  as  the  matured.  This 
legend  of  the  fall  of  man  has  established  in  the  paths  of 
life  its  drag  net  Sin,  a  word  of  such  unlimited  theological 
definition,  that  any  one  of  average  rectitude,  by  some 
trifling  inadvertance  of  thought  or  action,  is  likely  to 
bring  upon  himself  the  condemnation  of  a  frowning  God ; 
so  that,  the  worthy  as  well  as  the  unworthy,  may  not 
escape  the  ser\dces  of  theological  assistance  and  interces- 


36  PREFACE. 

sion.  But  for  the  doubt  that  exists,  and  has  probably 
always  existed,  except  among  the  ignorant  and  sluggish 
minded,  of  the  truth  of  this  peurile  invention,  it  would 
have  reduced  humanity  long  ago  to  a  state  of  universal 
hopelessness  and  despair. 

The  theologians  have  but  little  left  now  but  the  miracles 
to  defend,  and  although  it  must  be  conceded  by  them  that 
the  miracle  of  Joshua  has  fallen,  others  whose  fallacy  can- 
not be  so  well  demonstrated  by  science,  are  held  to  with 
the  tenacity  of  desperation,  and  in  utter  disregard  of 
reason  and  common  sense.  Fortunately,  in  the  interest  of 
truth,  we  are  given  an  opportunity  to  study  the  evolution 
of  miracles,  in  a  case  so  modern  that  every  statement  in 
proof  of  their  fallacy  can  be  substantiated  by  the  current 
literature  of  the  time.  Saint  Francis  Xavier  was  an 
earnest,  sincere  and  truthful  Jesuit,  whose  religious  ser- 
vices were  performed  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. He  gave  up  a  promising  career  as  professor  in  a 
Paris  academy,  and  in  his  enthusiasm  and  devotion  to 
Christianity,  went  as  missionary  to  the  Far  East.  Among 
the  various  tribes  of  lower  India,  and  afterward  in  Japan 
he  wrought  untiringly,  toiling  through  \dllage  after 
village   collecting  the   natives  by  means  of  a  hand  bell. 


PREFACE.  37 

After  twelve  years  of  such  efforts  seeking  new  converts 
for  religion,  he  sacrificed  his  life  on  the  desert  island  of 
San  Chan.  During  his  career  as  missionary  he  wrote 
great  numbers  of  letters,  which  were  preserved,  and  have 
since  been  published,  and  these,  with  the  letters  of  his 
contemporaries,  exhibit  cleary  all  the  features  of  his  life. 
No  account  of  a  miracle  wrought  by  him  appears  either 
in  his  own  letters  or  any  contemporary  document.  More 
than  that,  his  brother  missionaries,  who  were  in  constant 
and  loyal  fellowship  witk  him,  make  no  illusions  to  them 
in  their  communications  with  each  other,  or  with  their 
brethren  in  Europe.  This  silence  regarding  his  miracles 
was  clearly  not  due  to  any  unbelief  in  them,  because  these 
good  missionary  fathers  were  free  to  record  the  slightest 
occurance  which  they  thought  evidence  of  Divine  favor. 
One  of  them  sends  a  report  that  an  illuminated  cross  had 
been  recently  seen  in  the  heavens ;  another  that  devils 
had  been  cast  out  of  the  natives  by  the  use  of  holy  water; 
others  send  reports  that  lepers  had  been  healed  by  baptism, 
and  that  the  blind  and  dumb  had  been  restored  by  the 
rites  of  the  church  ;  but  to  Xavier  no  miracles  are  imputed 
by  his  associates  during  his  life,  or  during  several  years 
after  his  death.     On  the  contrary  we  find  his  own  state- 


38  PREFACE. 

ments  as  to  his  personal  limitations  and  the  difficulties 
arising  from  them  fully  confirmed  by  his  brother  workers. 
It  is  interesting  for  example,  in  view  of  the  claim  after- 
wards made,  that  the  Saint  was  divinely  endowed  for  his 
mission  with  the  ' '  gift  of  tongues ' '  to  note  in  these  letters 
confirmation  of  Xavier's  own  statement  utterly  disprov- 
ing the  existence  of  any  such  Divine  gift,  and  detailing 
the  difficulties  which  he  encountered  from  his  want  of 
knowing  various  languages,  and  the  hard  labor  he  under- 
went in  learning  the  elements  of  the  Japanese  tongue. 
With  all  this  evidence,  and  much  more  available  if 
necessary,  to  prove  that  Xavier  never  performed  a  miracle 
the  church  began  building  them  up  for  him,  unmindful 
of  the  fact  that  he  lived  in  an  age  of  literature,  books  and 
printed  correspondence,  and  not  in  those  remote  times 
when  it  held  supreme  control  of  all  learning  and  commu- 
nication by  letters ;  accordingly,  the  first  of  the  Xavier 
miracles  began  to  appear  about  ten  years  after  his  death. 
They  multiplied  from  time  to  time  begining,  it  is  reason- 
able to  suppose,  about  the  gossiping  hearth  and  eagerly 
confirmed  by  the  cloister,  until  they  began  to  be  men- 
tioned in  church  literature.  The  first  of  which,  a  letter 
twenty  years  after  his  death  by  a  Jesuit  father  entitled  ' '  On 


^ 


<<_ 


religious  affairs  in  the  Indies"    says  nothing  of  Xavier's 
miracles.     The  next,    a   publication  called    "History  of 
India"  thirty-six  years  after  his  death  by  another  Jesuit 
father  dwells  lightly  on  the  alleged  miracles.     The  next, 
sixty  years  later,  a  "  I^ife  of  Xavier"  shows  an  increase 
of  his  miracles,    and   representing  him  as  casting  out 
devHs,  curing  the  sick,  stilling  the  tempest,  raising  the 
dead,  and  performing  miracles  of  all  sorts.     Since  Xavier 
was  made  a  Saint  many  other  lives  of  him  appeared,  one 
of  them  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  after  his  death,  the 
best  so  far  written  and  now  esteemed   a  classic,  in  which 
the  old  miracles  were  enormously  multiplied.     According 
to  his  first  biographer  he  saves  one  person  from  drowning 
by  a  miracle,  in  this  one  he  saves,  during  his  Ufe  time, 
three.     In  the  first  he  raises  three  persons  from  the  dead, 
in  this  one  fourteen.     In  the  first  there  is  one  miraculous 
supply  of  water,  in  this  one  three,  and  so  on,  until  this 
date  when  the  Xavier  miracles  are  counted  by  hundreds. 
This  case  of  the  evolution  of  miracles  is  largely  copied 
from  a  recent  publication  of  President  White  of  Cornell 
University.     It  is  not  only  highly  instructive  as  indicating 
the  process  by  which  these  deceptions  are  evolved,  but 
also  tends  to  the  pleasant  and  welcome  conviction  that  many 


40  PREFACE. 

of  the  earnest  and  self-sacrificing  workers  in  the  field  of 
Christianity,  to  whom  miracles  are  imputed  were  guiltless 
of  them.  But  more  than  all  it  shows  the  way  to  a  reas- 
oning mind  by  which,  through  the  present  and  coming 
rationalism,  a  pure  and  worshipful  personality  shall  retain 
his   hold   upon  the   affections   of   men. 

Those  men  of  science  and  independent  thought  who 
went  over  to  the  Reformation,  expecting  encouragement 
and  protection  under  it,  were  doomed  to  be  disappointed. 
It  was  not  a  movement  caused  by  the  pressure  of  enlighten- 
ment. At  that  period,  both  Germany  and  England  were  far 
below  Italy  in  their  conditions  of  knowledge  and  learning. 
It  was  a  rebellion  caused  by  the  oppression  of  e\'ils,  and  a 
desire  for  change  in  the  management  of  church  matters  only. 
Every  one  of  the  superstitions  of  the  old  church  were 
transferred  to  the  new  one.  The  same,  in  fact  a  stricter 
literal  adherence  to  the  words  of  scripture  in  managing 
the  affairs  of  life,  and  in  deciding  questions  of  science, 
were  maintained,  the  same  incessant  watchfulness  toward 
those  men  of  learning  who  were  threatening  the  ' '  truths 
of  scripture"  in  their  scientific  labors,  and  the  same 
cruelties  invoked  for  their  suppression,  and  the  extinction 
of  heresy.     No  more  intellectual  freedom  was  permitted, 


PREFACE.  41 

except  upon  minor  doctrinal  points  of  beliefs,  and  upon 
these  there  began  those  controversies  which  soon  broke 
up  the  movement  into  factions  or  creeds.  The  intention 
of  the  new  church  was  to  do  away  with  those  rituals  and 
ceremonies,  which  had  been  adopted  from  paganism  as  a 
compromise  in  the  second  and  third  centuries,  and  to 
bring  their  church  back  as  far  as  possible,  to  that  simplicity 
which  characterized  the  first  teachings  of  Christianity. 
But  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation  never  attempted  nor 
had  they  any  desire  to  bring  back  that  entire  freedom  of 
thought  and  expression  which  existed  in  the  early  days. 
No  one  with  immunity  would  be  allowed  to  deny  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity  or  the  truth  of  Immaculate 
Conception,  as  the  old  Greek  philosophers  were  wont  to 
do.  Such  vital  questions  it  was  torture  and  death  to 
adversely  consider,  Servetus  being  and  earl}^  victim  to  such 
temerity.  There  were  questions  enough  however  within 
the  limits  of  safe  discussion,  to  set  agoing  those  unending 
controversies  which  distinguished  Protestantism  to  this 
day.  The  newly  acquired  privilege  of  discussing  sacred 
affairs  among  laymen  as  well  as  others,  were  indulged  in 
to  such  an  extent  that  debate  between  the  sects,  in  defense 
of  their  several  interpretations  of  scriptural  texts,  monop- 


42  PREPACK. 

olized  in  society  its  hours  of  intercourse  and  conversation. 
When  their  leaders  were  indulging  in  such  discussion  as 
the  dialogue  between  Eve  and  the  Serpent ;  whether  the 
Serpent  stood  erect  on  his  tail,  or  in  its  natural  coil  when 
it  was  addressing  Eve ;  fixing  the  hour  of  this  remarkable 
event ;  accounting  for  the  manner  in  which  Noah  fed  the 
animals  in  the  ark  ;  how  fishes  appeared  before  Adam  to 
be  named  by  him,  and  such  troublesome  problems,  laymen 
were  mostly  engaged  in  the  examination  of  those  doc- 
trinal points  which  were  dividing  the  movement  into 
sects.  Questions  that  had  been  settled  centuries  before 
by  authority  in  the  old  church  were  dragged  forth  to 
renewed  discussion.  lyUther  was  describing  his  frequent 
interviews  with  the  de\-il  in  his  bed  room.  Demons  and 
witches  were  poisoning  the  air,  and  bringing  calamity  and 
misfortune,  against  which  there  was  but  one  safeguard 
and  remedy,  reading  texts  of  scripture  and  prayer.  But 
however  the  sects  might  differ  in  their  understanding  of 
the  sacred  language,  upon  a  number  of  things  they  were 
all  agreed;  every  text  of  scripture  was  to  be  taken  liter- 
ally ;  heresy  could  not  be  too  severely  punished;  a 
curtailment  of  the  pleasures  of  life  increased  the  chances 
of  heaven ;  the  world  was  a  ' '  sink  of  iniquity ' '  destined  for 


PREFACE.  43 

early  destruction,  and  presided  over  by  a  God  who  never 
smiles,  and  troubled  by  a  devil  who  never  sleeps,  the 
latter  with  millions  of  offspring,  man  pursuing  demons, 
inflicting  insanity,  sickness  and  many  other  of  the  mis- 
fortunes of  life. 

In  these  beliefs  the  two  churchs  were  in  entire  accord 
and  must  equally  answer  for  the  miseries  and  cruelties 
they  have  inflicted  upon  humanity  in  enforcing  them. 
Theories  and  doctrines  so  persistently  advanced  and 
upheld  by  both  churches,  and  which  have  proved  so  dis- 
astrous to  humanity  do  not  properly  belong,  and  should 
have  no  place  in  Christianity.  They  are  not  only  without 
the  aiithority  of  the  Master,  but  are  mostly  in  opposition 
to  his  teaching  and  example.  The  most  harmful  of  them 
owe  their  origin  to  the  fables  and  myths  introduced  into 
the  sacred  book  second-hand  from  Egyptian  and  Oriental 
sources,  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  legends  due  to  the  faculty  of  romance  in 
the  minds  of  some  barbarous  Assyrians  or  Pharos,  far 
back  in  the  cradels  of  humanity,  when  introduced  as 
foundations  for  rules  of  life,  and  as  explanations  of  the 
mysterious  processes  of  nature  along  the  whole  line  of 
human  advancement  should  have  been  constantly  rejected 


44  PREFACE. 

and  denied  by  the  reasoning  portion  of  mankind,  and  it 
is  scarcely  conceivable  that  now,  within  a  few  months  of 
the  twentieth  century,  they  should  be  upheld  by  both 
churches  as  inspirations  of  the  Deity.  Not  so  surprising 
either  when  we  consider  that  for  seventeen  centuries,  the 
undeveloped  minds  of  youth  in  all  Christendom,  have 
been  moulded  into  the  acceptance  of  beliefs,  which,  had 
they  been  presented  without  that  gradual  absorption  in 
which  reason  takes  no  part  would  have  been  long  ago 
rejected  on  account  of  their  improbability.  In  no  place 
is  this  better  understood  than  among  the  churches,  and 
as  a  consequence,  they  have  been  in  perpetual  contention 
with  each  other  for  the  early  education  of  j'outh. 

The  most  inspiring  and  hopeful  spectacle  in  all  human- 
ity is  an  assemblage,  wrapt  in  the  devotional  exercises  of 
Christianity,  listening  attentivelj^  to  the  eloquent  minis- 
trations of  an  earnest  leader,  who  pleads  the  cause  of 
virtue  and  charity  as  it  is  exhibited  in  the  written  life  and 
character  of  the  Model  Man.  The  great  central  story 
never  wearies  in  interest,  and  never  grows  old ;  a  willing 
sacrifice  and  suffering  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  Such 
never  failing  kindness,  such  lessons  of  brotherhood,  such 
love  for  men,  such  tenderness  for  children,  such  consider- 


PREFACE.  45 

ation  beyoud  his  time  for  women,  and  with  such  a 
pathetic  and  suffering  end  as  to  capture  their  emotional 
natures  for  all  time.  And  above  all  bringing  the  tidings 
of  a  hope,  that  comes  to  men,  as  a  boat  of  rescue  comes 
to  a  storm-tossed  ship  slowly  sinking  into  the  depths  ;  so 
cherished  in  Christian  households  as  to  become  a  wor- 
shiped member  of  them,  to  be  defended  as  one  of  them, 
upheld  if  need  be  by  force  of  arms  and  sacrifice  of  life. 
And  the  lesson  of  it  all,  and  the  hopefulness  and  inspira- 
tion of  it  all  is,  that  wherever  mankind  dwells,  be  it  in 
castles  or  cottages,  amid  the  crow^ds  of  cities,  or  among 
quiet  country  fields,  there  are  laurels  everywhere  among 
them  all  for  him  who  will  sacrifice  himself  that  others 
may  gain ;  esteem  and  veneration  among  them  all  for 
him,  whose  life  is  pure,  and  whose  ways  are  ways  of  kind- 
ness and  charity.  Vice  can  never  reign  supreme  but  for  a 
time  amid  such  inherent  affinity  for  goodness  implanted 
in  every  human  heart,  and  as  the  days  of  general  consent 
and  unobstructed  knowledge  enHghten  and  control  the 
affairs  of  men,  more  and  more  certain,  as  time  rolls  on, 
will  come  protests  and  rebelUons  against  the  temporary 
triumph  of  evil. 

Of  that  entrancing  story  which  has  captured  civiliza- 


46  PREFACE. 

tion,  and  has  come  to  be  a  part  of  it,  what  is  there  in  the 
Master  that  deserves  such  barbaric  surroundings  ;  such 
inconsequential  details  of  obscure  and  barbarous  lives  ; 
such  vindictive  retaliations  and  brutal  conflicts,  sacreligi- 
ously  involving  the  Diety  as  a  promoter  of  them ;  wild 
fictions  of  early  ages,  inventions  of  the  infancy  of  man, 
conflicting  accounts  of  historical  events,  fragmentary 
parts  by  difierent  persons  at  different  periods ;  explana- 
tions in  many  branches  of  science,  now  known  to  be  mis- 
taken and  absurd,  and  containing  texts,  that  either  openly 
sanction  or  have  been  twisted  into  service  of  the  most 
stupendous  outrages  that  humanity  has  suffered. 

"Considering  the  asserted  origin  of  these  records  — 
indirectly  from  God  himself — we  might  justly  expect  that 
they  would  bear  to  be  tried  by  any  standard  that  man  can 
apply,  and  vindicate  their  truth  and  excellence  in  the 
ordeal  of  human  criticism.  We  ought  therefore  to  look 
for  universality,  completeness,  perfection.  We  might 
expect  that  they  would  present  us  with  just  \dews  of  the 
nature  and  position  of  this  world  in  which  we  live,  and 
that,  whether  dealing  with  the  spiritual  or  material,  they 
would  put  to  shame  the  most  celebrated  productions  of 
human   genius,   as   the   magnificent  mechanism  of   the 


PREFACE.  47 

heavens,  and  the  beautiful  forms  of  the  earth  are  superior 
to  the  vain  contrivances  of  man.  We  might  expect  that 
they  would  propound  with  authority,  and  definitely  settle 
those  all  important  problems,  which  have  exercised  the 
mental  powers  of  the  ablest  men  of  Asia  and  Europe  for 
so  many  centuries,  and  which  are  at  the  foundation  of  all 
faith  and  all  philosophy ;  that  they  should  distinctly  tell 
us,  in  unmistakable  language,  what  is  God,  what  is  the 
world,  what  is  the  soul,  and  whether  man  has  any  criter- 
ion of  truth ;  that  they  should  explain  to  us  how  evil  can 
exist  in  a  world,  the  Maker  of  which  is  omnipotent,  and 
altogether  good ;  that  they  should  reveal  to  us  in  what 
the  affairs  of  men  are  fixed  by  destiny,  in  what  by  free 
will ;  that  they  should  teach  us  whence  we  came,  what  is 
the  object  of  our  continuing  here,  what  is  to  become  of 
us  hereafter.  And  since  a  written  word  claiming  a  divine 
origin  must  necessarily  accredit  itself,  even  to  those  most 
reluctant  to  receive  it,  its  internal  evidences  becoming 
stronger  and  not  weaker,  with  the  strictness  of  the  exami- 
nation to  which  they  are  submitted,  it  ought  to  deal  with 
those  things  that  may  be  demonstrated  by  the  increasing 
knowledge  and  genius  of  many  anticipating  therein  his 
conclusions.     Such  a  work  noble  as  may  be  its  origin, 


48  PREFACE. 

must  not  refuse,  but  court  the  test  of  natural  philosophy, 
regardmg  it  not  as  an  antagonist  but  as  its  best  support. 
As  years  pass  on  and  human  science  becomes  more  exact 
and  more  comprehensive,  its  conclusions  must  be  found 
in  unison  therewith.  When  occasion  arises  they  should 
furnish  us  at  least  the  foreshadowings  of  the  great  truths 
discovered  by  astronomy  and  geology,  not  offering  for  them 
the  wild  fictions  of  earlier  ages.  They  should  tell  us  how 
suns  and  worlds  are  distributed  in  infinite  space,  and  how, 
in  their  succession  they  come  forth  in  limitless  time. 
They  should  say  how  far  the  dominion  of  God  is  carried 
out  by  law,  and  what  is  the  point  at  which  it  is  his  pleas- 
ure to  resort  to  his  own  arbitrary  will.  How  grand  would 
have  been  the  description  of  the  magnificent  universe 
written  by  the  omnipotent  hand !  Of  man  they  should 
set  forth  his  relations  to  other  living  beings,  his  place 
among  them,  his  privileges  and  responsibilities.  They 
should  not  leave  him  to  grope  his  way  through  the  ves- 
tiges of  Greek  philosophy,  and  to  miss  the  truth  at  last, 
but  they  should  teach  him  wherein  true  knowledge  con- 
sists, anticipating  the  physical  science,  physical  power, 
and  physical  well  being  of  our  own  times,  nay,  even 
unfolding  for  our  benefit  things  that  we  are  still  ignorant 


PREFACK.  49 

of.  The  discussion  of  subjects,  so  many  and  so  high,  is 
not  outside  the  scope  of  a  work  of  such  pretensions.  Its 
manner  of  deaUng  with  them  is  the  only  criterion  it  can 
offer  of  its  authority  to  succeeding  times."  * 

How  unHke  this  is  our  asserted  Sacred  Book,  with  its 
fables,  its  myths  and  legends,  its  deadly  texts  that  have 
scourged  mankind.  By  its  pretension  of  divine  authority, 
carrying  forward  into  our  civilization  superstitions,  that 
otherwise  would  have  melted  away  under  the  light  of 
knowledge ;  putting  a  limit  to  learning,  obstructing  it, 
and  denouncing  it,  in  many  of  its  branches ;  paralizing 
thought,  and  substituting  in  its  stead  a  blind  faith,  insti- 
tuted and  cultivated  by  ecclesiasticism,  to  bring  men  under 
its  control ;  holding  up  as  an  example  of  divine  favor,  the 
low  moral  standard  of  barbaric  times ;  recounting  mur- 
ders, incests,  adulteries  and  obscenities,  that  would  have 
banished  the  book  long  since  from  the  regions  of  refine- 
ment and  civilization,  but  for  its  assumed  origin,  and 
which  serve,  by  their  easy  and  undenied  access  to  young 
minds,  as  a  stimulation  to  destructive  pruriency  ;  sanc- 
tioning human  slavery',  and  encouraging  bloodshed  by 
battle ;  setting  an  example  of  extortionate  tithes  for  the 


*  Draper's  InteUectual  Deve'opemeut  of  Europe. 


50  PREFACE. 

support  of  ecclesiasticism ;  uttering  the  most  heartrending 
curses,  as  coming  directly  from  the  Almighty,  for  failure 
to  comply  with  his  assumed  commands,  and  which  have 
been  made  the  example,  'authorizing  the  horrible  cruelties 
inflicted  upon  mankind  by  the  churches,  literary  models 
as  they  are  of  those  anathemas,  interdicts,  and  excom- 
munications, b)^  which  the  older  church  terrorized  human- 
it}^  for  fifteen  hundred  years.  ' '  I  will  also  do  this  unto 
you,  I  will  even  appoint  over  you  terror,  consumption, 
and  the  burning  ague,  that  shall  consume  the  eyes,  and 
cause  sorrow  of  heart,  and  ye  shall  sow  your  seed  in  vain  ; 
for  your  enemies  shall  eat  it."  "I  will  also  send  wild 
beasts  among  you,  which  shall  rob  you  of  your  children, 
and  destroy  your  cattle,  and  make  you  few  in  number, 
and  your  highways  shall  be  desolate."  "For  they  went 
and  served  other  gods,  and  worshiped  them,  gods  whom 
they  knew  not,  and  whom  he  had  not  given  unto  them ; 
and  the  anger  of  the  lyord  was  kindled  against  this  land 
to  bring  upon  it  all  the  curses  that  are  written  in  this 
book."  "Do  not  I  hate  them  O  I^ord  that  hate  thee,  j^ea 
I  hate  them  with  a  perfect  hate. "  "  Thou  shalt  not  suf- 
fer a  witch  to  live."  "A  man,  also  or  a  woman  that  hath 
a  familiar  spirit,  or  that  is  a  wizard,  shall  surely  be  put  to 


PREFACE.  51 

death."  "And  ye  shall  chase  your  enemies,  and  they 
shall  fall  before  you  by  the  sword."  Solely  on  the 
authority  of  such  deadly  texts  as  these,  and  the  book  is 
full  of  them,  the  world  has  been  overspread  in  blood.  It 
was  these  that  gave  Spain  a  pretended  sanction  of  the 
lyord  to  exterminate  fifteen  millions  of  people  in  Mexico 
and  Peru,  with  a  better  and  higher  civilization  than  itself, 
and  to  rob  them  of  their  wealth  and  possessions.  It  was 
these,  and  such  as  these,  that  authorized  and  instigated 
the  Inquisition,  which  from  1481  to  1808,  put  to  torture 
and  horrible  death  by  burning,  340,000  human  beings. 
It  was  these  that  induced  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew with  its  30,000  victims  of  fire  and  sword ;  the  Eng- 
lish persecutions  under  Bloody  Mary,  in  which  three 
hundred  fellow-creatures  perished  ;  the  almost  total  anni- 
hilation of  the  Albigenesis  in  the  south  of  France.  This 
war  was  carried  on  with  more  ferocious  cruelt}'  than  any 
ever  recorded  in  history ;  the  fanatical  fury  of  the  soldiers 
was  stimulated  by  the  exortations  of  the  clergy.  At  the 
storming  of  Baziers,  when  it  was  proposed  to  spare  the 
Catholics,  a  monk  exclaimed,  "Kill  all,  God  will  recog- 
nize his  own,"  and  the  atrocious  precept  was  but  too  well 
observed.     The  war  terminated  by  the  complete  devasta- 


52  PREFACE. 

tion  of  the  country,  and  the  almost  complete  extermina- 
tion of  its  inhabitants.  Follo^^'ing  along  in  the  bloody 
path  of  these  barbaric  scriptural  commands,  we  have  to 
record  the  witch  burnings  of  Europe  and  America,  dur- 
ing the  term  of  Christian  supremacy,  calculated  in  the 
hundreds  of  thousands ;  the  Crusades,  and  purely  religi- 
ous wars  since  the  time  of  Constantine,  whose  victims  are 
beyond  computation ;  and  all  this  to  no  other  purpose  or 
end,  but  that  the  world  should  be  forced  into  the  belief 
of,  what  is  kno\vn  to  be,  the  theological  system  of  a  low 
social  development ;  this  the  terrible  cost  to  humanit}', 
for  the  adoption  and  systematic  retention  by  the  churches, 
of  the  ancient  Jewish  beliefs  and  modes  of  thought ;  this 
the  infliction,  that  ecclesiasticism  might  prevail,  using  the 
sermon  on  the  mount  to  capture  the  consciences  of  men, 
and  scourging  them  with  the  mandates,  curses  and  pun- 
ishments of  a  Hebrew  divinity,  to  bring  them  into  line 
for  its  purposes.  In  taking  these  Jewish  annals  to  its 
heart,  making  them  a  part  of  itself,  as  objects  of  example 
and  worsnip,  has  not  Christianity  retarded  the  advance  of 
mankind  ?  Has  it  not,  by  them,  obstructed  knowledge, 
prevented  a  greater  expansion  of  human  sympathy,  and 
prolonged  the  betterment  of  social  conditions? 


PRBPACE.  53 

In  these  days  of  enlightenment  and  higher  thought, 
the  vestiges  are  everywhere  seen  of  our  fifteen  centuries 
of  misdirection.  Almost  every  Christian  life  bears  the 
impress  of  these  cruel  Hebrew  traditions.  The  com- 
mander of  a  battleship  in  the  war  with  Spain,  after  his 
slaughter  of  numbers  of  the  enemy,  assembles  his  men  to 
give  "thanks  to  the  Lord,"  and  the  next  moment  cau- 
tions them  not  to  cheer  because  "  the  poor  fellows  are 
dying,"  illustrates,  that  mingling  of  Jewish  superstition 
with  the  teaching  and  example  of  the  Master,  to  be  ob- 
served everywhere  in  our  present  civilization.  The  inher- 
ent religious  impulses  of  mankind — natural  religion — some 
of  which,  finding  no  more  congenial  quarters,  is  attracted 
to  the  churches,  regard  war  with  feelings  of  greater  re- 
pulsion than  does  orthodox  theology,  indoctrinated  in  the 
belief  of  its  divine  sanction,  and  consequently,  the  success 
of  the  American  arms,  so  plainly  due  to  natural  causes, 
was  celebrated  by  the  churches  in  the  usual  ancient 
Hebraic  method  by  ' '  thanks  to  the  Ivord. ' '  The  supreme 
intolerance  of  Christianity  which  has  wrought  such 
havoc  with  mankind,  is  plainly  due  to  the  suggestions  of 
Hebrew  scripture,  and  it  is  only  the  natural  religion 
within  the   churches,  and  that  large   portion  outside   of 


54  PREFACE. 

them,  which  is  forcing  Christianity  into  a  purer  worship, 
and  destroying  its  superstitons.     It  demands  for  all  things, 
holy  as  well  as  unholy,  the  right  of  critical  examination, 
and  it  sees  but  little  else  in  our  Sacred  Book  worth  pre- 
ser\dng,  outside  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  and  its  exten- 
sions.    It  is  this  natural  religion  of  conscience,  encourag- 
ing and  encouraged  by  science  and  reason,  which   has 
wrested  the  control  of  civilization  from  ecclesiasticism.     Its 
intellectusl  strength   prevails  at   last   over  the  intellect- 
ual  strength   of  theolog)^ ;    but   the   unthinking   of  the 
multitude  are  many,  and  the  battle  commencing  four  cen- 
turies  ago   still   lingers,    theology   backed   by   its   weak 
numbers,  its  old  weapons  destroyed,  and  science  by  its 
strong  men  with  searchlights. 

But  the  searchlights  of  science  can  not  disturb  the 
heart  of  Christianity.  Its  doctrine  of  atonement,  de- 
stroyed by  the  established  truth  of  evolution  ;  its  account 
of  the  creation  and  the  deluge,  proved  to  be  fables ;  its 
miracles  discredited,  and  many  of  them  demonstrated  by 
science  to  be  untrue,  it  still  holds  within  itself,  an 
element  which  is  in  harmony  with  the  aspirations  of 
mankind  for  the  coming  betterment  on  earth  and  here- 
after.    All  these  things  that  it  has  lost  are  but  perverted 


PREFACE.  55 

offrisings  from  its  body,  not  a  part  of  the  body  itself 
*  *  I^ove  one  another.  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  that 
others  shall  do  unto  you, ' '  are  the  golden  words  that  have 
established  it  in  the  world  as  a  living  moving  power.  Of 
these  its  soul  and  life  are  composed,  and  these  no  arrow 
of  science  can  reach.  Its  dogmas  aside,  every  human 
being  within  the  precincts  of  civilization  is  born  a  Chris- 
tian, and  but  for  its  early  perversion  at  the  hands  of  a 
crafty  priesthood,  its  intolerent  and  cruel  career  from 
forced  and  unworthy  association,  all  men,  learned  as  well 
as  unlearned,  would  be  working  in  its  ranks. 

It  came  into  the  world  and  entered  society,  making  its 
way  from  below  upward.  lyike  all  movements  coming  out 
of  the  lower  levels,  it  was  socialistic.  Its  originator,  for 
he  cannot  be  called  its  leader,  was  the  first  person  who 
had  ever  appeared  in  the  world  as  the  instigator  of  a  great 
reform  movement  benefitting  the  whole  of  mankind  with- 
out some  apparent  or  suspected  motive,  in  denial  of  his  abso- 
lute unselfishness,  and  the  movement  in  its  early  stages, 
partaking  and  wholly  composed  of  his  inspiration,  was  a 
pure  unselfish  socialism.  Its  members  were  bound  to- 
gether by  the  closest  brotherhood,  loving  and  caring  for 
each  other  by  divine  command ;    declared   equal   by   a 


56  PREFACE. 

mandate  of  Heaven,  in   an  age   when   three-fourths   of 
mankind  were  outcasts,    uncared,  neglected,  and  abused 
by  a  cruel  oligarchy,  slaves  and  dependents,  among  whom 
it  was  a  misfortune  and  misery  to  have  been  born,  and 
having  a  religion  so  purposeless  and  unpromising  as  to 
afford  nothing  but  a  momentary  spectacular  display.     To 
these  people  the  new  religion  was  as  congenial  and  wel- 
come as  the  warm  sunshine  and  verdure  of  summer  after 
a  long  sojourn  in  the  Arctic,     Its  doctrines  touched  society 
where  it  had  most  need  of  their  humane   precepts  and 
uprising.     For  nearly  a  century  no  system  of  dogmas,  no 
doctrine  of   atonement,  no  extensive  church  authority 
had  been  determined,  and  the  whole  stress  of  religious 
teaching  was  directed  toward  the  worship  of  a   moral 
ideal,  and  the  cultivation  of  moral  qualities.     Its  numbers, 
which  had  been  looked  upon  until  then,  by  the  higher 
and  governing  class  with  either  contemptuous  silence,  or 
occasional  argumentive  opposition,   were  become  so  in- 
creased that  their  political  weight  gave  promise  of  a  new 
field  for  the  exercise  of  authority  and  power,    and  from 
thence  on  began  that  addition  of  intellectual  forces  which 
have  so  completely  changed  its  character. 

Every  change  instituted  by  its  new  leaders  was  with 


PREFACE.  57 

the  sole  purpose  of  increasing  its  numbers  and  of  argu- 
menting  its  political  weight.  They  began  by  making  a 
compromise  with  paganism  in  adopting  some  of  its  ritu- 
als, pandering  to  the  imaginations  of  the  uncultivated 
multitude  by  spectacular  display,  inventing  a  sj^stem  of 
church  government  with  an  executive  head,  adopting  the 
Jewish  annals  for  its  organic  laws  and  modes  of  thought, 
cultivating  a  belief  in  miracles  and  increasing  them  on 
every  opportune  occasion,  until  with  the  one  end  in  view 
of  overcoming  the  world  as  Caesar  did  with  his  legions, 
more  bloody  than  Csesar,  taking  into  their  hands  a  move- 
ment full  of  humanity,  instituted  by  men  in  the  lower 
walks  of  life  to  soften  their  hard  lines  and  give  them  new 
hopes,  and  to  increase  their  sympathies  and  feelings  of 
brotherhood,  it  became,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  world 
remains  to  this  day,  under  its  attached  dispensation  of 
ecclesiastical  dogma  and  control,  a  handmaid  of  kings 
and  emperors  in  oppression,  an  upholder  of  deadly  super- 
stition, an  intimidator  of  free  thought  and  free  learning, 
an  unconcerned  looker-on  upon  the  miseries  of  life  beyond 
its  proselyting  interest,  careless  of  the  whole  world  and 
its  affairs,  except  so  far  as  it  can  profit  by  its  theory  of 
exclusive  salvation,  and  the  mouth  piece  in  cant  phrases, 


58  PREFACE. 

which  have  long  since  lost  their  force  and  meaning,  of  a 
lingering  barbarism. 

And  yet  the  world  was  never  so  much  in  need  of  a  pure 
Christianity.       An  expanded  benevolence  cherished  and 
assisted  as  much  by  skepticism  as  the  churches  is  one  of 
the  characteristics  of  modern  society.     Although  the  phys- 
ically strong  do  not  prey  upon  the  physically  weak  as 
pitylessly  as  in  the  olden  time,  the  financially  strong  are 
preying  upon  the  financially  weak  with  as  little  consci- 
ence, and  the  intellectually  strong  are  preying  upon  the 
intellectuall}''  weak  with  as  much  cunning,  as  they  were 
in  barbaric  times.     Civilization  has  increased  the  two  last 
mentioned  evils.     The  strugghng  masses  under  a  load  of 
grinding  wealth,  in  their  better  knowledge  are  no  longer 
appeased  by  the  promises  of  an  adulterated  and  composite 
Christianity,  whose  chief  business  for  centuries  has  been 
to  set  before  them  an  awaiting  paradise,  in  recompense  for 
their  earthly  wrongs ;  but  now,  the  multitude  impressed 
with   a   knowledge   belonging   to   these   times,    is  proof 
against  these  allurements.    The  toiling  millions  who  make 
easy  places  for  the  few,   and  increase  their  wealth,  and 
who  have  carried  out  to  a  successful  end  the  brilliant 
material  advancement  which  surrounds  us,  is  the  world 


PREFACE.  59 

proper,  all  the  rest  are  merely  dependants.  Into  this 
world  and  down  among  these  quarters  from  whence  it 
came  Christianity  must  prepare  itself  to  re-enter,  and  of 
this  the  shadow  is  already  to  be  seen.  It  must  discard  its 
dogmas  and  superstitions,  which  it  has  even  now  con- 
signed to  partial  obscurity  and  silence,  and  in  place  of 
them,  take  on  the  things  of  the  world.  It  must  go 
among  the  money  changers  of  the  temples,  and  into  the 
halls  and  by-ways  of  legislation,  giving  battle  everywhere 
with  evil ;  for  it  is  through  these  that  the  world  is  given 
or  denied  its  betterment,  and  it  must  set  science  on  its 
right  hand,  recognizing  it  as  an  attribute  of  the  Diety. 
Christianity  with  this  companion,  its  pure  ideal  recovered 
from  its  ecclesiastical  mists,  setting  out  on  its  new  journey 
through  the  world,  blazing  the  way  for  truth  instead  of 
suppressing  it,  conforming  itself  in  all  ways  to  the 
natural  religion  of  mankind,  would  become  to  humanity 
what  the  sun  is  to  the  earth,  comforting  the  souls  of  men 
b}'  its  hopes,  enlarging  their  charities  by  its  precepts, 
and  warming  into  life  many  a  germ  of  virtue  and  goodness, 
which  else,  would  never  have  blossomed,  to  shed  its  moral 
fragrrance  on  the  earth. 


6o  PREFACE. 

The  foregoing  was   written    to   indicate   that    Hne   of 
thought,   whose  convictions  are   briefly  expressed,  here 
and   there,    through   the  pages  of  this   little  book,  now 
offered  to  the  public  in  its  third  edition.     It  is  always 
safer  and  pleasanter  to  deal  with  received  theology  in  the 
spirit   of    reverance,    usually   found   in   literature ;    thus 
offending  no  one,  and  meeting  the  approval  of  a  worthy 
and  influential  class ;  but,  there  are  other  reasons  why  an 
adverse  criticism  of  theological  methods  and  beliefs,  are 
not  so  often   publicly  exploited  as   their  importance  to 
society  deserves.     In  the  first  place  experience  has  shown 
that   errors  of   religious  belief,   fixed  upon  the  mind  in 
infancy  and  youth,    are  seldom  removed  by  discussion. 
We  are  not  yet  arrived  at  that  stage,   when  the  love  of 
truth   so   predominates  in  the  minds  of  men,  that  they 
will    sacrifice   every   prejudice,   and   reject   all   opposing 
influence   to   obtain   it.       Christianity    has   imposed   an 
elaborate   system   of    prejudices   on   every   young   mind 
within  its  jurisdiction  and  they  have  become  entwined 
with  all  the   most  hallowed   associations  of   childhood, 
appealing  so  strongly  to  the  affections,  that  any  expressed 
denial  of  their  exact  truth  excites,  in  most  cases,  a  feeling 
of  resentment,  and  often  stirs  to  petty  persecution.      A 


PREFACE.  6 1 

large  majority  of  the  human  race  accept  their  opinions 
from  authority,  and  all  authority  heretofore  has  encour- 
aged beliefs,  which  appear  so  inseparably  connected  with 
the  moral  well  being  of  society,  and  which  hold  in  con- 
tinued supremacy,  institutions  and  modes  of  thought 
whose  subversion  it  is  alleged  would  be  in  many  ways 
dangerous.  Yet,  the  fact  remains  that  it  is  mostly 
through  its  inroads  upon  these  old  beliefs  that  the  world 
has  arrived  at  its  present  stage  of  progress,  and  the  opin- 
ion of  orthodox  theologians  that  they  should  be  retained 
in  their  entirety,  or  of  others  that  they  should  be  abol- 
ished, cuts  no  figure ;  because,  whether  for  good  or  evil 
in  the  opinions  of  men,  Providence  has  ordained,  that 
those  only  which  represent  the  truth  shall  live,  and  know- 
ing this  of  a  certainty,  it  becomes  of  the  greatest  interest 
to  discover  what  society  is  likely  to  lose  or  gain  by  that 
modification  of  religious  beliefs,  wherein  only  the  truth 
shall  remain.  If  we  cannot  foretell  this  future  condition 
with  certainty,  it  is  largely  foreshadowed  by  past  and 
present  experience.  What  the  world  has  lost  in  the 
modification  of  religious  beliefs,  would  be  hard  to  find, 
what  it  has  gained  would  take  volumes  to  recount.  In 
the  most  important  of  all  human  interests,  liberty  of  per- 


62  PREPACK. 

son,  liberty  of  conscience,  and  libertj'  of  speech,  there 
has  been,  as  yet,  no  adequate  acknowledgement  by  man- 
kind of  the  great  services  of  the  silent  and  avowed  skep- 
ticism which  brought  about  the  consumation  of  these 
blessings.  The  writings  of  Moses,  the  recorded  wisdom 
of  Solomon,  the  encyclicals  of  popes,  and  the  sermons  of 
bishops  and  priests,  both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  in  their 
rising  up  of  the  lowly,  in  their  encouragement  of  brother- 
hood, and  in  that  exact  and  even  justice  to  all  men,  so 
far  as  their  practical  services  to  humanitj'-  in  these  direc- 
tions can  be  measured,  sink  into  an  empty  insignificance, 
when  compared  with  those  organic  declarations  and  laws, 
upon  which  this  great  republic  was  founded,  and  which 
were  the  outcome  and  product  of  a  then  recent  enlighten- 
ment, due  to  the  combined  efforts  of  European  skeptical 
writers,  who  by  their  genius  of  sarcasm  and  incisive 
argument,  were  disturbing  the  old  theological  modes  of 
thought,  and  awaking  the  world  to  wide  strides  in  ration- 
alism. That  these  new  American  rules  of  political  equal- 
ity, beacons  of  liberty  for  men  to  follow  and  admire, 
obtained  their  inspiration  and  incentive  from  those  new 
lights  in  literature,  which,  at  that  time,  were  stirring  the 
world  of  thought,  there  can  be  no  question.     In  these 


PREFACE.  63 

famous  American  documents,  were  embodied  the  practical 
carrying  out  of  principles,  enunciated,  and  suggested  by  the 
European  writers,  and  the  most  active  of  the  men  engaged 
in  the  noble  work  of  forming  the  new  government,  are 
known  to  have  been  diciples  of  these  leaders  of  anti-theo- 
logic  thought.  Our  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
Federal  Constitution,  stand,  to-day,  grand  achievements 
of  modern  scientific  thought,  and  conspicious  triumphs  of 
rationalism,  over  old  methods,  foreshadowing  in  these, 
its  great  works,  a  better  wisdom  to  govern  the  affairs  of 
men,  than  all  the  ages  guided  by  Hebrew  tradition.  Yet, 
in  these  documents  will  be  seen  an  overflowing  of  natural 
religion,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Master.  ' '  Do  unto  others 
as  ye  would  that  others  shall  do  unto  you. ' ' 

If  we  have  for  more  than  fifteen  centuries,  yeilded  our- 
selves to  doctrines,  conveyed  to  us  through  all  the  high- 
ways of  life,  so  assiduously,  that  neither  infancy,  youth, 
manhood  or  old  age,  have  escaped  their  tireless  impor- 
tunities for  acceptance  ;  doctrines,  which  consign  seven- 
eighths  of  humanity  to  eternal  torture  for  no  faults  to 
most  of  them  but  a  lack  of  opportunity,  which  under 
Providence  has  been  denied,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  con- 
clude, with  this  experience  of  the  mutability  of  human 


64  PREFACE. 

understanding,  that  there  are  other  beliefs  fastened  on  our 
minds  by  ages  of  custom  and  mistaken  thought,  equally 
untenable,  which  may  be  as  justly  placed  in    our  cata- 
logue of  errors.      Where  then  shall  we  look  for  truth? 
Authority,   as  we  have  seen,  is  not  an  infallible  guide. 
We  shall  never  know  how  much  the  industrious  promul- 
gation of  error  is  due  to  the  selfish  love  of  corporate 
power,   how  much  to  a  pure  benevolence.     Neither  are 
the  brightest  minds  safe  monitors  in  all  things  of  thought. 
Aristotle  defended  slavery,  Hobbes  persecution,  Johnson 
witchcraft,  and  Gladstone  religious  superstition ;  but,  for 
all  that,  we  shall  never  arrive  at  the  extremity  of  despair  ; 
for  a  cultivation  of  the  mind,  the  deductive  use  of  positive 
knowledge,  and  the  untrammeled  exercise  of  reason,  lead 
to  truth,  as  directly,  as  the  line  of  gravity  points  to  the 
center  of  the  earth,  and  only  by  these  will  its  reign  be 
established  in  the  world. 

W.  S. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

My  habitation  is  upon  the  plateau  of  a  mountain  in 
California.  I  entered  this  region  and  became  a  settler  by 
a  fortuituous  event.  About  thirty -five  years  ago,  I  took  a 
summer  outing  from  a  close  application  to  business  in  the 
metropolis,  and  came  here  for  a  deer  hunt.  One  of  those 
beautiful  animals  that  I  had  wounded  with  my  rifle  led 
me  further  into  this  wild  and  picturesque  locality  than  I 
had  intended  to  go,  and  I  thus  arrived  upon  this  spot,  as 
I  believe,  the  first  white  man  that  ever  sat  foot  upon  it. 
Reaching  here  late  in  the  afternoon,  I  found  myself  too 
far  out  of  my  path  to  return  by  daylight,  and  so,  building 
a  fire,  I  spent  my  first  night  alone  in  this  weird  place.  It 
was  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  had  slept  where  some 
human  creature  was  not  within  the  sound  of  my  voice, 
and  from  that  night  I  date  a  change  of  sentiment, 
thought,  and  feeling,  which  has  altered  my  career,  and 
made  me,  what  I  have  chosen  to  be,  a  recluse. 


66  INTRODUCTORY. 

I  had  been  living  in  the  world  about  thirty  years  amid 
the  artifical  surroundings  of  a  city.  I  had  scarcely  looked 
upon  the  sky  and  heavens,  except  between  the  margins 
of  opposite  house-tops.  I  had  viewed  from  infancy, 
without  emotion,  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun  from  a 
horizon  of  chimneys  and  steeples;  and  when  these  exhib- 
itions first  presented  themselves  to  me  here  in  this  crystal 
atmosphere,  with  an  expanse  from  this  altitude  so  new 
to  me,  they  appeared  like  a  revelation.  I  seemed  to  have 
been  suddenlj^  ushered  into  the  world,  and  to  be  looking 
for  the  first  time  in  my  life  upon  the  stupendous 
phenomena  about  me. 

Until  this  moment  I  had  not  approached  a  realization 
of  the  magnificence  and  prodigious  wonders  which  the 
heavens  afford  to  our  observation.  It  was  here  also  that  I 
began  for  the  first  time  to  enjoy  those  beautiful  and  curious 
processes  of  nature,  where  the  bursting  germs,  ascending 
gradually  out  of  the  soil,  change  their  shapes,  multiply 
their  organs,  and  after  a  time  crown  themselves  with 
brilliant  and  deliciously  flavored  flowers.  In  my  new 
observation  and  intimacy  with  plant  growth,  with  some 
previous  knowledge  of  the  science  appertaining  to  it,  and 
with  a  newly  discovered  delight  in  marking  the  changes 


INTRODUCTORY.  67 

of  position  and  the  characters  of  the  heavenly  bodies  by 
the  greedy  acquirement  of  all  the  information  within  my 
reach,  I  have  come  to  forego,  without  regrets,  the  social 
pleasures  of  life. 

By  the  liberal  laws  of  my  country,  I  have  become 
possessed  of  this  attractive  spot,  and  thus  far,  I  have 
chosen  to  retain  it  in  its  natural  state.  I  came  here  a 
young  man.  I  am  now  old.  Thirty-five  years  of  my  life 
have  been  spent  on  this  elevation,  with  a  self-banishment 
from  society,  without  in  the  least  abating  my  interest  in 
human  affairs.  My  communication  with  the  world  is 
mostly  through  books.  A  weekly  newspaper  or  two,  and 
such  other  publications  as  I  may  order,  are  left  for  me  in 
a  hollow  tree  several  miles  away  by  the  district  messenger  ; 
and  thus  no  important  event  or  new  discovery  in  the 
world  escapes  me. 

I  have  constructed  with  my  own  hands  a  cabin,  having 
much  convenience  and  comfort,  and  also  some  outhouses, 
which  shelter  my  poultry  and  a  pair  of  gentle  cows, 
which  latter,  finding  abundant  food  in  the  natural  grasses 
about,  come  to  me  regularly  at  milking  time,  seemingly 
as  much  for  the  pleasure  of  being  caressed,  as  to  furnish 
me  the  principal  nourishment  of  my  life. 


68  INTRODUCTORY. 

There  is  a  trout  steam  iu  the  center  of  my  possession, 
with  expansions  here  and  there,  which  serve  as  bathing 
places  for  myself,  and  out  of  which  pure  and  cool  drink  is 
supplied  to  the  few  domestic  animals  about  me.  This 
stream  makes  its  way  through  the  bottom  of  a  hollow, 
and  is  so  overhung  by  the  lofty  branches  of  trees  which 
grow  upon  its  borders  that  the  sunlight  only  enters  in 
patches,  and  is  so  reflected  by  the  restless  surface  of  the 
water  as  to  mark  its  devious  way  with  the  appearance  of 
a  line  of  flashing  mirrors.  The  surrounding  dense  body 
of  foliage,  from  at  least  a  hundred  varieties  of  trees  and 
shrubs,  is  tinted  with  a  variegation  of  color  seldom  seen 
outside  the  tropics.  This  charming  spot  has  its  voices, 
as  restless  as  the  lights  and  shadows  which  play  about 
within.  Each  miniature  waterfall  has  its  liquid  note; 
while  during  certain  hours  there  comes  from  every 
quarter  of  the  foilage  above  a  confused  melody  of  birds, 
who,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  assemble  there  for  enter- 
ment  and  gossip. 

Outside  of  this  watered  region,  my  homestead  is  inter- 
spersed with  openmgs,  where  the  rich  loam  only  awaits 
the  labor  of  cultivation  to  produce  a  wealth  of  grain  or 
fruit.      Every  tree   and  shrub  within  my  possession    of 


INTRODUCTORY.  69 

half  a  mile  square,  by  long  familiarity,  seems  to  have 
become  a  part  of  myself.  We  are  living  and  ageing 
together.  I  have  watched  in  them  the  development  of 
infancy,  the  slow  and  gradual  approach  to  youth,  and  the 
turning  point  from  maturity  to  old  age.  Among  these 
old  monarchs  of  the  woods  is  here  and  there  one  tipped 
with  the  signs  of  superannuated  decay.  About  their  feet 
lay  many  of  their  withered,  sapless  limbs.  They  have 
lost  their  symmetery,  and  stand  in  scraggy  outline.  I 
see  from  year  to  year  their  gradual  giving  up  of  life, 
while  beside  them  a  new  generation  arises.  There  is  a 
fellow  feeling  between  us.  My  hair  grows  thin  and  white 
and  iriy  step  is  no  longer  firm  and  elastic.  Like  them  mj^ 
share  of  life  is  growing  to  a  close,  and  j^et  I  am  an  infant 
in  years  compared  to  many  of  them.  I  bow  to  them  with 
a  sentiment  of  reverence.  They  are  my  old  men.  The 
younger  ones  are  my  children — mine !  What  a  grand 
thing  it  is  to  have  these  in  my  possession, — to  hold  in  m)^ 
own  right  such  a  choice  piece  of  this  blossoming  earth, 
where  all  the  mysterious  forces  are  at  work  day  and 
night  for  me  alone ! 

I  have  come  also  to    have   an  abiding  interest  in  the 
creatures  who  by   nature   are   inhabitants  of  this  place. 


70  INTRODUCTORY. 

lyOng  ago  have  I  laid  aside  my  gun  as  an  instrument  of 
destruction,  and  it  rests  now  on  its  pegs  above  my  pillow 
only  as  a  defense.  By  slow  degrees  I  have  gained  a  con- 
fidence with  the  native  birds  and  animals  which  surround 
me,  so  that  it  is  wonderful  how  many  of  them  welcome 
me  and  enjoy  my  presence.  There  swarm  to  my  poultry 
fold  at  feeding  time  myriads  of  quail  and  other  birds,  who 
with  an  amusing  assurance,  run  about  my  feet  and  dis- 
pute for  the  crumbs  that  I  scatter.  The  gray  squirrels 
may  be  often  seen  scampering  down  from  their  hiding 
places  in  the  trees  to  meet  me,  in  expectation  of  their 
accustomed  relish  of  wheat  grains,  which  are  stowed 
away  for  them  in  my  pockets.  I  have  three  pet  deer, 
quite  tame  and  domesticated,  whose  intimate  acquaint- 
ance was  brought  about  in  a  singular  way.  Sitting  on 
my  doorstep  one  bright  afternoon,  I  had  listened  for  some 
time  to  the  baying  of  hounds  in  the  neighboring  moun- 
tains, when  presently  there  came  bounding  toward  me, 
in  terror,  a  trembling  doe,  and  with  her  beaming  eyes 
fixed  upon  me,  seeming  to  invoke  my  pity,  she  literally 
threw  herself  into  my  arms.  Taking  in  the  situation  at  a 
glance,  I  tried  to  force  her  into  my  door  before  the  dogs 
arrived.     Too  late  for  that,  I  could  only  arm  myself  with 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 1 

a  Stick  from  my  woodpile,  when  the  whole  yelping  pack 
were  upon  us.  It  was  a  hard  fight,  and  only  after  many 
bites  and  scratches  from  the  disappointed  hounds  did  I 
beat  them  off.  I  kept  her  in  a  secure  outhouse  for  a  few 
days,  where  two  beautiful  fawns  were  born  to  her ;  and 
ever  since  the  mother  and  offspring  have  been  my  favor- 
ite pets,  following  me  about  like  children.  My  acquaint- 
ance with  other  of  the  creatures  about,  though  not  so 
intimate,  is  still  of  such  a  confidential  kind  that  they 
manifest  no  terror  at  my  approach,  and  I  am  thus  enabled 
to  realize,  by  this  free  exhibition  of  them,  how  teeming 
with  animal  life  is  the  earth  in  its  most  favored  parts. 

In  my  earlier  years  I  have  felt  the  cold  blasts  and  tor- 
rid heats  of  other  climes.  I  now  rest  myself  in  the  happy 
satisfaction  that  I  have  found  in  this  equable  temperature 
and  agreeable  surroundings  a  place  where  one  nia.y  look 
upon  life  as  a  blessing.  I  have  acquired  enough  knowl- 
edge of  some  of  the  sciences  to  make  an  instrument  or  two 
of  service  to  me,  and  I  take  especial  interest  in  my  tele- 
scope of  three  inches  aperture,  in  the  use  of  which  I 
spend  many  an  hour  which  otherwise  might  hang  heavily 
on  my  hands.  I  have  also  a  good  microscope  and  field 
glass.     Through  the  latter  I  bring  to  view  the  distant 


72  INTRODUCTORY. 

hillsides  and  mountain  tops,  observing,  frequently,  groups 
of  deer  grazing  tranquilly,  and  at  times  a  family  of 
panthers  gamboling  on  the  green  carpet  of  an  opening,  or 
an  eagle  feeding  her  young  upon  the  inaccessible  brink  of 
a  precipice ;  and  on  rarer  occasions,  a  bear  complacently 
munching  acorns  under  some  prolific  old  oak  a  mile 
away.  My  microscope  has  revealed  to  me  a  world  of 
wonders.  I  have  discovered  by  it  the  limitable  range  of 
our  senses,  and  how  far  below  as  well  as  above  us  the 
infinite  extends,  I  grope  about  in  the  darkness  of  my 
understanding  between  an  atom  and  the  outside  limit 
of  the  stars,  every  step  toward  either  showing  an  increase 
of  distance.  These  things  I  pursue,  not  with  the  spirit 
and  application  of  a  student,  but  rather  for  the  entertain- 
ment which  they  furnish  and  the  meditation  they  invoke. 
I  have  learned  all  that  is  known  of  the  motions  and  eccen- 
tricities of  heavenly  bodies  within  my  telescopic  vision, 
and  I  never  look  upon  them  without  rapture.  What  are 
all  other  shows  to  this?  How  many  of  these  countless 
worlds  are  inhabited?  What  beings  are  upon  them? 
How  do  they  compare  with  us?  Has  it  been  given  to 
them  to  comprehend  eternity  ?  Is  knowledge  with  them 
intuitive  or  acquired?     Thus   do  I  lose  myself  in  these 


INTRODUCTORY.  73 

bevaldering  fancies. 

It  may  appear  that  I  have  avoided  my  share  in  the 
cares  and  duties  of  human  association.  If  I  have,  it  is 
from  no  lack  of  sympathy  with  my  kind.  I  look  upon 
my  fellow-men  from  my  distant  and  somewhat  isolated 
point  of  view,  without  the  usual  diversion  of  active  affairs, 
and  both  my  pity  and  admiration  are  aroused.  The 
sufferings  and  sorrows  of  my  kind  seem  appalling  to  me 
from  this  position,  while  their  heroism  in  the  struggle  for 
knowledge  seems  to  me  grand  beyond  expression.  I  feel 
myself  in  the  midst  of  civilization,  and  yet  apart  from  it. 
If  I  have  been  a  loser  from  that  lack  of  social  attrition 
whicTi  arouses  the  activities  of  thought,  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, certain  that  I  have  not  been  submitted  to  a  combina- 
tion of  those  influences  which  render  and  error  plausible. 
The  opinions  and  thoughts  of  the  world  come  to  me,  and 
I  pass  them  in  review  with  a  full  sense  of  the  fallibility 
of  individual  opinion,  as  well  as  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
steady  approach  of  that  collective  truth,  which,  sooner  or 
later,  will  overspread  the  world. 


THE  MAN  FROM  MARS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

My  telescope  is  mounted  in  an  apartment  adjoining  my 
cabin,  with  an  elevated  exposure,  and  has  some  extra 
contrivances  for  the  convenience  of  adjustment,  designed 
and  constructed  by  myself.  The  instrument  can  be  raised 
and  lowered  at  pleasure,  and  is  protected  by  a  movable 
dome,  which  is  easily  laid  aside  by  means  of  a  couple  of 
pulHes.  It  is  a  good  one,  and  for  its  size  has  remarkable 
power.  I  have  been  enabled  to  reach  with  it  double  stars 
of  the  sixth  magnitude,  frequently  observing  even  Orion, 
with  its  beautiful  double  and  multiple  systems.  I  can 
easily  discover  with  it  the  most  distant  planet  Neptune, 
and  by  their  progressive  displacement,  I  have  seen  and 
recognized  with  it  most  of  the  asteroids.  I  can  get  with 
it  a  fine  view  of  Jupiter,  that  magnificent  planet  fourteen 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  75 

hundred  times  larger  than  our  Earth,  and  have  observed 
the  black  spots  upon  its  surface,  and  the  transit  of  its 
moons.  The  grand  spectacle  of  Saturn  and  its  rings  is 
brought  to  my  observation  with  remarkable  clearness.  I 
have  so  frequently  looked  into  the  dismal  caverns  and 
upon  the  towering  mountains  of  our  satellite,  the  Moon, 
that  its  marks  and  bounds  are  as  familiar  to  me  as  the 
neighboring  hills.  But  life  is  short,  and  amid  all  this 
illimitable  sea  of  worlds,  I  have  fixed  my  attention  upon 
but  one,  for  that  special  study  which  my  few  remaining 
years  will  permit.  The  heavenly  body  which  most  en- 
gages my  attention  is,  excepting  our  satelite,  the  nearest 
one  to  us,  our  neighboring  planet  Mars. 

I  believe  that  body  to  be  inhabited  by  beings  in  many 
respects  like  those  of  the  earth.  My  conclusion  is 
adduced  from  many  known  facts  concerning  it.  Mars  has 
an  atmosphere  like  ours.  Its  density  does  not  differ  ma- 
terially from  the  Earth.  The  heat  it  derives  from  the  sun, 
possibly  modified  by  atmospheric  conditions,  is  quite 
likely  the  same  as  ours.  It  has  zones  of  varying  temper- 
ature, and  seasons  of  summer  and  winter  like  the  Earth. 
Its  days  are  about  the  same  length  as  ours.  The  ice  and 
snow  of  its  polar  regions  are  plainly  perceptible,  and  vary 


76  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

in  arrears  exactly  in  accordance  with  its  changing  posi- 
tions and  distances  from  the  sun.  From  which  we  may- 
infer,  without  a  doubt,  that  its  atmosphere  contains  moist- 
ure of  the  same  chemical  composition  as  ours,  and  is  con- 
densed into  rain  and  snow  as  with  us. 

There  are  striking  points  of  difference,  however, 
between  Mars  and  the  Earth.  Its  diameter  is  a  little  less 
than  half  that  of  our  planet,  and  its  surface  is  only  about 
a  quarter  of  ours,  while  its  volume  is  but  a  seventh  part 
of  our  globe.  Furthermore,  instead  of  a  single  satellite 
like  ours  it  has  two  moons,  which  revolve  in  opposite 
directions  around  it,  neither  of  which  in  point  of  size  can 
be  compared  to  ours. 

My  knowledge  of  astronomy  not  being  profound,  it  has 
been  the  greatest  pleasure  and  gratification  to  me  to  verify, 
by  my  own  observations,  the  calculations  and  theories  of 
the  abler  scientists.  Appertaining  to  Mars,  it  is  perhaps 
needless  to  say  that  there  is  a  diversity  of  opinion  among 
astronomers  touching  its  physical  conditions.  The  un- 
usual red  color  of  its  reflected  light,  its  bright  and  dark 
spots,  and  the  variation  which  is  observed  in  the  forms 
overspreading  its  disc,  are  differently  accounted  for.  It  is 
among  such  questions  as  these,  then,  that  my  imagination 


the;  man  from  mars.  77 

and  ingenuity  are  free  to  exercise  themselves,  and  the  de- 
sire to  settle  some  of  these  disputed  points  to  my  own  sat- 
isfaction increases  the  eagerness  of  my  observation. 

I  have  watched  for  many  years,  with  anticipations  of 
pleasure,  when  Mars  would  be  in  opposition, — or  in  other 
words,  when,  during  its  revolution  upon  its  orbit,  it 
comes  nearest  to  the  Earth.  These  occurrences  of  about 
every  two  years  are  holidays  of  pleasure  and  enjoyment 
to  me.  There  are,  however,  rarer  oppositions  of  Mars, 
which  occur  only  twice  in  a  century,  when  the  distance 
between  us  is  reduced  to  the  smallest  limit ;  and  it  has 
been  my  good  fortune  to  get  a  finer  view  of  this  heavenly 
body  at  this  shorter  distance  than  will  few  human  beings 
at  present  alive. 

It  can  well  be  imagined  what  a  supremely  interesting 
event  this  was  to  me.  Days  before  its  culmination  did  I 
watch  its  progress  approaching  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
Earth.  Each  succeeding  night  exhibited  to  me  its  slowly 
magnifying  proportions,  and  the  greater  distinctness  of 
objects  on  its  surface.  Here  was  a  world  of  beings,  no 
doubt,  with  aims  and  enterprises  like  ours,  rolling  head- 
long through  the  heavens  with  a  known  velocity  of  fifty- 
four  thousand  miles  an   hour.     This    planet  was  now 


78  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

approaching,  hourly,  its  greatest  possible  proximity  to 
the  Earth.  That  I  should  lose  no  time  in  devouring,  as 
I  may  say,  this  unusual  spectacle,  I  had  provided  my 
telescope  with  a  kind  of  clockwork  contrivance,  by  which 
it  exactly  kept  pace  v/ith  iNIars  on  its  westward  course. 
Dtiring  these  few  days,  I  had  forgotten  everything  else  in 
my  eagerness  to  feast  my  ej-es  on  this  rare  show.  The 
nights  had  been  favorable  to  observation;  and  each  eve- 
ning after  turning  my  instrument  on  the  rapidly  approach- 
ing planet,  my  interest  became  so  transfixed  and  absorbed 
that  all  mj'  ordinary  phj'sical  wants  were  suppressed. 
I  had  lost  in  these  few  days  of  mental  excitement  all  inclin- 
ation for  foed  and  sleep.  No  one  could  be  freer  from 
superstition  than  I,  yet  my  mind  was  uneasy  under  an 
unaccountable  premonition.  It  gave  some  anxiety  to 
think  that  on  the  very  night  of  culmination,  when  my 
interest  would  be  at  its  height,  a  change  of  weather  might 
cut  off  the  scene.  But  aside  from  this,  in  my  somewhat 
feverish  condition,  I  could  not  restrain  a  sense  of  some 
impending  and  momentous  event  in  my  personal  affairs. 
Some  strange  influence  seemed  to  be  disturbing  the  usual 
tranquil  and  placid  condition  of  my  mind.  I  aroused 
myself  from  this,  however,  and  became  thoroughly  myself 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  79 

when  the  sun  went  down  on  the  evening  of  my  hope,  and 
left  an  atmosphere  that  was  as  perfect  as  I  could  wish  for. 
The  sky  was  calm  and  clear,  with  just  enongh  moisture 
in  the  air  to  increase  its  transparency.  The  ordinary 
evening  sounds  appeared  stilled.  Neither  nighthawk  nor 
owl  seemed  abroad,  and  the  usual  rustling  of  leaves  and 
swaying  of  tree-tops  was  suppressed  by  a  calm  that  struck 
me  as  strange.  The  day  had  been  moderately  warm,  and 
the  sun-distilled  odors  of  the  firs  and  pines,  condensed  by 
the  coolness  of  twilight,  v/ere  filling  the  air  with  an  agree- 
able perfume,  as  though  Nature  was  burning  incense  in 
the  celebration  of  some  ancient  rite,  during  which  every 
living  and  breathing  thing  about  seemed  bowed  in  silent 
reverence.  I  had  never  known  until  now  what  assurance 
there  was  in  the  natural  sounds  which  nightly  fell  upon 
my  ears.  In  my  mountain  home  no  feeling  of  loneliness 
ever  came  over  me  before.  I  felt  an  especial  longing  now 
for  the  sound  of  a  human  voice,  for  a  companion  upon 
whom  I  might  discharge  myself  of  the  suggestions  and 
beliefs  appertaining  to  the  subject  of  my  investigation 
and  study.  My  mind  was  filled  with  conclusions  touch- 
ing the  physical  condition  of  Mars,  which  each  new  obser- 
vation tended  to  corroborate.     I  had  my  theory  to  give  of 


8o  THE   MAN   FROM    MARS. 

its  rose-colored  light.  I  had  seen  the  clouds  moving 
upon  its  surface,  its  polar  snows,  and  its  very  atmosphere. 
I  had  no  doubt  whatever,  now,  that  it  was  inhabited,  and 
the  anticipation  of  soon  seeing  it  in  its  most  favorable 
opposition  with  the  Earth,  was  accompanied  with  a  yearn- 
ing that  some  human  creature  might  share  with  me  the 
rare  spectacle. 

As  the  twilight  faded,  I  looked  with  my  naked  eyes 
toward  the  east,  and  my  other  world  was  showing  its  red 
light  near  the  horizon  like  a  rising  sun  in  miniature.  At 
midnight  it  would  reach  its  culmination,  when  viewing  it 
through  the  least  possible  thickness  of  our  atmosphere  in 
its  vertical  position,  I  would  see  it  as  no  human  being 
could  see  it  again  for  over  half  a  century.  The  oppres- 
sive silence  and  tranquility  remained  unbroken,  and  as  I 
seated  myself  in  my  observatory  and  adjusted  the  tele- 
scope, I  felt  myself  not  quite  in  my  accustomed  vigor  of 
health.  The  temperature  had  perceptiblj'  raised,  when  it 
had  usuall}''  fallen  as  the  night  advanced.  The  air  was 
sultry.  A  sensation  of  qualmishness  came  over  me.  It 
came  to  my  mind  now  that  I  had  abused  myself  by  a  long 
neglect  of  sleep  and  regular  meals.  But  no  sooner  had  I 
brought  my  instrument  to  a   focus   than   I   was   myself 


THS   MAN    FROM    MARS.  8 1 

again.  Our  beautiful  neighbor  was  mounting  the 
heavens,  reflecting  the  sun's  light  in  a  delicate  crimson 
tint,  and  in  size  of  outline  beyond  my  expectation.  I 
could  plainly  mark  its  rotation  upon  its  axis  by  noting 
the  slow  movements  of  spots  upon  its  disc,  and  their 
sudden  disappearance  over  its  limb.  The  hours  seemed 
minutes  to  me.  My  fatigue  and  illness  were  forgotten. 
In  my  rapture  of  enjoyment  the  lingering  wish  increased 
that  some  fellow  creature  might  share  it  with  me.  My 
telescope,  in  tracing  the  planet's  course  had  very  nearly 
obtained  a  vertical  position,  when  I  was  astonished  to  see 
the  distant  world  suddenly  disappear,  and  begin  to 
vibrate  back  and  forth  over  the  aperture  of  my  instru- 
ment. A  moment's  reflection  explained  the  matter.  The 
Earth  had  shaken.  So  trifling,  however,  was  the  dis- 
turbance about  me  that  it  had  not  been  felt.  But  I  had 
lost  my  focus,  and  Mars  was  already  on  its  backward 
journey.     My  grand  holiday  was  over. 

I  immediately  lowered  the  telescope  and  replaced  its 
protecting  dome.  Gathering  the  few  hasty  notes  I  had 
prepared  during  my  observation,  for  future  reference  and 
elaboration,  I  made  my  way  to  an  apartment  of  my  cabin 
which  serves  me  for  a  library  and  bed  chamber.     A  num- 


82  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

ber  of  shelves  filled  with  books  occupy  one  of  its  sides. 
My  bed  rests  in  a  corner.  An  easy  chair  stands  besides 
a  table  in  the  center,  and  under  a  window,  proportion- 
ately large,  fronting  the  south,  is  placed  a  cushioned 
lounge  of  some  pretentions  to  comfort  and  luxury,  I 
threw  myself  upon  this,  after  laying  away  my  papers,  and 
the  lower  panes  of  my  window  being  on  a  level  with  my 
head,  I  looked  out  into  the  night. 

The  moon  in  its  last  quarter  was  just  peeping  over  a 
near  mountain.  Its  light,  partly  obstructed  by  a  net- 
work of  tree-tops,  was  throwing  figures  of  light  and  shade 
over  the  adjacent  opening,  so  that  the  ground  appeared 
to  have  spread  upon  it  a  collosal  carpet,  with  fantastic 
decorations  of  ebony  and  silver.  The  air  had  grown  a 
trifle  cooler.  A  gentle  breeze  was  stirring  out  of  the 
West,  and  the  silence,  that  had  recently  fallen  so  myster- 
iously upon  me,  was  being  followed  now  by  a  normal 
condition  of  unrest.  As  the  moon  rose  higher,  its  fanci- 
ful shadows  upon  the  ground  dissolved,  and  the  level 
plateau  adjacent  to  my  window  was  uniformly  covered 
with  a  clear,  bright  light.  Looking  again,  and  quite 
sensibly  impressed  with  the  changed  condition  of  things 
about  me,  I  descried  the  figure  of  a  man,  not  far  from  my 


THE   MAN    FROM    MARS.  83 

window  ;  and,  strange  to  say,  I  was  neither  alarmed  nor 
startled  at  his  presence.  His  face,  of  which  I  saw  but 
little  more  than  its  profile,  was  turned  upward  looking  at 
the  moon,  and  its  expression  was  unmistakably  one  of 
admiration  and  wonder.  His  long,  and  apparently  well- 
cared-for  hair  and  beard,  reflected  a  golden  sheen  under 
the  light  above.  His  arms  were  folded,  and  his  shape 
and  attitude  impressed  me  as  being  majestic. 

While  fixing  my  gaze  intently  on  this  strange  form,  an 
expression  of  something  wanting  about  it  took  possession 
of  me,  when  presently  I  observed  with  surprise,  that 
although  standing  under  the  bright  and  unobstructed 
light  of  the  moon,  no  shadow  was  visible  about  it.  He 
remained  for  some  time  as  immovable  as  a  statute,  gazing 
upon  our  satellite  as  one  who  had  never  before  looked 
upon  so  wondrous  a  sight,  and  then,  with  the  air  of  one 
on  unfamiliar  ground,  he  made  an  inquiring  survey  of  my 
cabin,  and  then  directed  his  careful  footsteps  toward  my 
doorway. 


84  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 


CHAPTER  II. 
This  strange  figure  entered  my  cabin,  and  without 
introduction  or  sign  of  salutation  seated  himself  in  my 
easy  chair  as  though  he  were  a  member  of  my  household, 
an  apparent  rudeness  which  will  be  explained  as  I 
proceed.  I  had  now  the  first  opportunity  to  get  a  good 
survey  of  my  visitor.  He  was  a  person  of  surpassing 
loveliness.  His  face  was  of  that  spiritual  kind  which  is 
seldom  seen  off  the  canvass  of  some  of  our  art  masters, 
and  it  reflected  a  kindness  of  heart  that  is  never  realized 
except  by  the  purest  religious  fancy.  His  form  was  so 
high  and  elaborate  in  its  development,  that  I  have  only 
seen  an  approach  to  it  in  the  best  models.  His  singular 
attractiveness  I  can  only  compare  to  that  affinity  which 
comes  of  pure  sexual  love,  captivating  the  beholder  with 
a  presence  which  drives  away  all  thought  but  it.  His 
complexion  had  that  ruddy  clearness  and  transparency 
indicative  of  perfect  health.  The  hair  ot  his  head  and 
beard, — both  long  and  waving  over  shoulders  and  breast, 
— was  of  a  hue  that  can  be  best  described  as  the  color  of 


the;  man  from  mars.  85 

the  ripe  filbert,  with  the  fineness  and  lustre  of  unwoven 
silk.  His  hands,  although  scrupulously  clean  and  finel}- 
shaped,  bore  the  unmistakable  signs  of  manual  toil ;  and 
yet  he  had  the  superior  air  and  manner  of  one  whose 
mission  it  was  to  instruct.  As  he  sat  before  me  I  felt  like 
a  child  in  the  presence  of  a  loved  and  loving  parent.  M}^ 
impression  of  him  was  entirely  correct,  since  his  first  word 
of  utterance  to  me  was  a  term  of  endearment. 

"My  brother,"  said  he,  "you  have  a  beautiful  world. 
That  moon  of  yours  is  magnificent." 

To  me  this  was  a  happy  beginning.  Here  was, 
thought  I,  a  man  after  my  own  heart,  whose  soul  was 
above  the  common  things  of  life.  I  could  compare  notes 
with  him  touching  my  study  of  Mars.  Providence  had 
then  sent  me,  at  last,  what  I  had  so  wanted, — some  one 
to  share  and  enjoy  with  me  the  triumphs  of  my  labor  ;  so 
I  immediately  said  to  him  :  "  As  to  the  moon,  it  is  cer- 
tainly very  serviceable  as  a  night  reflector  of  the  sun's 
light;  but,  since  its  size  is  comparatively  insignificant, 
and  its  surface  desolate  and  uninhabited,  it  is  thus  an 
object  of  ver>'  little  importance  among  heavenly  bodies. 
Speaking  of  magnificent  planets,  what  do  you  think  of 
Mars?" 


86  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

' '  Mars  stdts  me, ' '  said  my  visitor. 

Thinking  my  question  too  general,  I  inquired  :  ' '  Do 
you  think  Mars  inhabited  ?  ' ' 

"I  am  a  good  proof  that  it  is,"  said  he.  "I  left  that 
planet — ^let  me  see — by  your  time,  about  one  hour  ago." 

"I  either  misunderstood  you,  or  you  are  not  serious. 
It  is  impossible. ' ' 

"Ah,  my  brother,"  said  he,  "you  are  very  little 
advanced  in  a  knowledge  of  the  properities  of  intelligence. 
I  am  here  by  a  process  as  yet  unknown  to  you,  and 
which  may  be  best  described  in  your  language  as  rejflec- 
tion.  I  am  here  by  reflection.  That  is  to  say,  my 
natural  body  is  at  my  home,  on  the  planet,  which  you 
call  Mars.  Its  spiritual  counterpart  is  here.  You  have 
already  an  inkling  of  this  strange  faculty  of  transfering 
intelligence,  in  some  of  the  phenomena  on  which  is 
founded  your  spiritualistic  creed.  We,  of  the  planet 
Mars,  have  been  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  discovery  for 
centuries ;  and  while  you  of  the  Earth  are  only  able  by 
your  appliances  of  science  to  measure  the  size  of  our 
planet,  compute  its  distance,  estimate  the  shape  and 
extent  of  its  orbit,  and  indulge  in  some  vague  conjectures 
appertaining  to  its  condition,   we  have  been  making  a 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  87 

close  and  interesting  study  of  your  social  affairs,  includ- 
ing, of  course,  your  morals,  politics  and  religion.  You 
have  only  measured  us  as  a  planet.  We  have  measured 
you  as  a  people,  and  at  least  one  of  us,  as  you  perceive, 
has  mastered  your  language.  Besides,  our  development 
is  over  ten  thousand  years  ahead  of  yours.  We  can  tell 
you  more  of  your  history  than  you  know  yourselves.  At 
a  period  of  yours  described  by  your  writers  as  the  stone 
age,  we  had  converted  electricity  into  a  motor  and  illum- 
inating agent.  I  know  your  thoughts.  You  are  sur- 
prised at  what  I  have  said,  and  wish  me  to  tell  you  some- 
thing of  the  planet  upon  which  I  reside. 

"It  will  interest  you  to  know  that  about  the  equatorial 
regions  of  Mars  is  found  its  highest  civilization  and 
densest  settlement.  Your  torrid  zone,  and  the  corres- 
ponding section  of  our  planet,  are  widely  different.  In 
ours,  the  cUmate  is  delightfully  and  evenly  temperate. 
The  extent  of  our  surface,  as  you  know,  is  very  much  less 
than  yours,  but  the  uniform  quality  of  our  land  for  culti- 
vation, and  the  smaller  water  surface,  compared  with 
yours,  supports  a  population  whose  numbers  would 
astonish  you.  You  may  as  well  discharge  your  mind  of 
the  many  conjectures  which  ascribe  to  each  planet  a  qual- 


88  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

ity  of  matter  and  intelligence  peculiar  to  itself.  The 
whole  universe  is  a  unit,  as  3'our  spectroscope,  and  the 
bodies  from  space  that  fall  from  time  to  time  upon  5-our 
surface,  must  have  suggested  to  you.  Variable  states  of 
density  and  temperature  modify  the  forms  and  organs  of 
animal  and  vegetable  life,  but  matter  is  everywhere  the 
same. 

"Your  chemists  have  just  arrived  at  that  point  of 
knowledge  where  ours  were  forty  centuries  ago.  Yours 
recognize  over  sixty  forms  of  matter  as  simple  and 
elementary,  while  ours  have  reduced  them  all  to  one, — 
the  unit  out  of  which  all  creation  is  formed.  From  this 
you  may  infer  that  our  discovery  of  the  compound  nature 
of  the  metals  enables  us  to  make  them  at  pleasure.  This 
was  a  most  fortunate  and  timely  knowledge  for  us,  since 
they  are  distributed  very  sparsely  on  our  planet.  It  will 
no  doubt  be  a  strange  thing  to  tell  you,  that  we  make 
gold  at  a  less  cost  than  iron,  and  that  consequently  it  is 
the  cheapest  metal  in  use.  You  are  about  to  ask  me 
whether  we  make  diamonds.  We  have  made  them  for 
centuries.  Our  factories  turn  them  out  in  masses  for  the 
ornamental  parts  of  buildings,  for  which  they  are  remark- 
ably adapted  on  account  of  their  brilliancy  and  indestruct- 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  89 

ibility." 

My  strange  visitor  rested  a  little  here,  with  the  evident 
intention  of  reading  my  thoughts,  and  of  enjoying  my 
surprise.  While  I  was  marvelling  what  great  things 
chemical  science  must  have  done  in  other  ways,  he 
appeared  to  anticipate  my  question. 

' '  My  brother, ' '  said  he,  '  'we  are  indebted  to  the  science 
of  chemistry  for  more  than  I  can  readily  enumerate. 
With  us,  as  with  you,  a  large  number  of  common  and 
abundant  substances  differ  only  a  trifle  in  chemical  com- 
position from  others  which  are  in  great  demand  for  the 
purposes  of  life.  The  science  of  chemistry  enables  us  to 
convert  one  into  the  other  at  will.  Thus,  from  wood  we 
manufacture  sugar,  starch,  and  any  number  of  other 
useful  commodities.  By  the  double  decomposition  of  air 
and  water  we  generate  a  heat  which,  for  economy  and 
easy  regulation,  is  better  than  anything  the  universe 
affords.  The  clumsy,  unclean  and  inconvenient  use  of 
wood  and  coal  for  fuel  is  with  us  a  practice  of  the  past. 

"But  chemistry  has  done  for  us  an  immeasurably 
greater  service.  It  has  enabled  us  to  provide  for  our- 
selves a  food  supply  by  the  process  of  synthesis,  which, 
in  the  extremety   of  crop  shortage   or  failure,    we   can 


go  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

resort  to  as  a  means  of  averting  famine.  You  are  aware, 
in  your  present  stage  of  chemical  knowledge,  that  all  food 
products  are  composed  of  four  simple  ingredients,  Carbon, 
Oxygen,  Hydrogen  and  Nitrogen,  found  in  abundant 
supply  in  the  atmosphere  and  its  natural  mixture.  These, 
with  two  or  three  earthy  matters  from  the  soil,  are  the 
constituents  of  all  food.  We  forestall  the  slow  assimula- 
tion  of  these  by  the  organs  of  animals  and  plants,  and  by 
our  chemical  skill  are  enabled  to  combine  them  in  proper 
proportion  to  form  the  proximate  elements  of  all  varieties 
of  food,  wanting  in  nothing  but  the  taste  and  flavor  of 
the  natural  supply,  and  on  that  account,  only  used  when 
compelled  by  necessity, 

* '  Our  advance  in  sytithetic  chemistry  has  enabled  us 
to  imitate  nature's  products  in  many  of  their  organic 
forms.  Besides  those  nitrogen  compounds  which  we 
manufacture  as  life  sustainers,  we  produce  many  sub- 
stances which  are  equivalent  to  those  you  obtain  exclu- 
sively from  animal  and  vegetable  life.  We  obtain  in  this 
way  substitutes  for  leather,  horn,  ivory,  and  also  fats  and 
oils,  albumen,  gluten,  starch,  etc.,  etc.;  most  of  these 
better  and  in  more  convenient  forms  for  industrial  and 
culinary  uses  than  nature  furnishes  them.     Our  textile 


THK   MAN    FROM    MARS.  9 1 

fabrics  are  entirely  derived  from  vegetable  growth,  and 
we  give  them  a  quality  of  slow  or  quick  conduction  of 
heat  to  accord  with  their  purposes  of  summer  or  winter 
wear. 

' '  You  may  safely  infer  from  what  I  have  said  that  we 
slaughter  no  animals  for  food  or  raiment.  Such  demoral- 
izing cruelty  we  have  never  practiced.  The  ferocious 
examples  of  beasts  and  birds  of  prey  we  have  never 
known,  and  we  have  no  extensive  wastes  over  which  they 
could  live  and  flourish.  Our  animals  which  are  limited 
in  variety  compared  with  yours  are  all  domesticated,  and 
our  treatment  of  them  is  so  uniformly  kind,  that  instead 
of  avoiding  us  they  court  our  society.  We  have  a  clean 
and  beautiful  creature,  much  smaller  than  your  cow,  which 
gives  us  milk.  It  is  remarkably  intelligent,  and  is  often 
admitted  into  our  households  to  nurse  our  infants,  who 
become  very  fond  of  them.  Our  city  parks  are  provided 
with  these  animals  and  it  is  a  common  sight  to  see  them 
gamboling  with  children  and  quietly  submitting  them- 
selves to  their  nourishment. 

"  It  is  a  part  of  our  religion  to  believe  that  every  living 
cieature  is  related,  though  distantly,  to  ourselves,  and  to 
those   of   them  especially  which  are   brought  into  our 


92  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

sendee,  we  owe  not  only  an  obligation  of  kindness,  but 
the  care  of  attention  in  sickness  and  old  age.  We  have 
accordingly  established  places  of  retirement  for  them. 
The  kind  relations  existing  for  ages  between  us  and  all 
animal  kind  has  modified  their  conduct  to  us  in  a  wa)^ 
that  would  be  striking  to  you,  and  would  lead  you  to 
believe  that  they  possess  more  intelHgence  than  you  have 
given  them  credit  for.  They  come  to  us  in  their  troubles, 
and  submit  in  the  most  human  way  to  medical  treatment 
in  their  hospitals.  You  would  be  interested  to  note  the 
friendly  familiarity  existing  between  us  and  our  birds, 
who  in  brilliancy  of  plumage  and  song  are  far  ahead  of 
yours.  They  abound  in  our  city  parks,  and  one  has  only 
to  open  the  window  and  whistle  and  they  will  come  flying 
into  the  appartment,  engaging  themselves  in  a  concert  of 
song,  perched  about  on  the  furniture,  as  a  happy  privi- 
lege. On  any  other  occassion  when  one  comes  silent  and 
alone  we  know  what  it  portends,  and  it  is  tenderly  carried 
to  the  bird  hospital." 

"You  have,"   I  ventured  to  enquire,   "railroads  and 
boats  for  transportation?" 

"We  have  neither,"  answered  my  visitor,  "nor  do  we 
require  them,  for  reasons  easily  explained.      There  are 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  93 

two  conditions  of  our  planet  which  render  the  navigation 
of  the  air  entirely  safe  and  successful.  They  are  the 
greater  density  of  our  atmosphere,  and  the  diminished 
force  of  gravity  compared  with  yours.  Our  air  ships,  as 
you  would  call  them,  are  easily  made  to  sustain  and  move 
large  cargoes,  by  vacuum  chambers  and  electric  motors. 
Our  inventors  have  long  since  surmounted  the  difficulties 
of  adverse  wind  currents,  and  these  vessels,  of  both 
public  and  private  use,  may  be  seen  constantly  moving 
about  in  all  directions,  and  at  all  altitudes,  with  but  few 
serious  accidents. 

"There  are  no  large  oceans  like  yours  on  Mars,  and 
our  rivers  are  so  small  as  not  to  serve  the  purposes  of 
commerce.  You  will  perceive,  then,  that  our  facilities  for 
navigating  the  air  were  bestowed  upon  us  as  a  means  of 
transportation,  in  lieu  of  the  convenient  waterways  which 
5^ou  enjoy.  As  you  may  anticipate,  from  the  small  size 
of  our  rivers,  there  are  no  extensive  mountainous  water 
sheds  upon  our  surface.  Instead  of  your  immense,  deso- 
late, and  storm-beaten  seas,  we  have  a  series  of  lakes, 
everywhere  varying  in  size,  but  none  of  them  larger  than 
seventy-five  of  your  miles  long,  and  forty  broad. 

"The  relative  density  between  water  and  an  animal 


94  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

body  being  such  on  our  planet  as  to  render  the  possibility 
of  drowning  by  accident  impossible,  the  fear  and  horror 
existing  with  you  of  involuntary  immersion  in  the  depths 
is  entirely  unknown.  Our  numerous  lakes  are  therefore 
scenes  of  the  most  enjoyable,  and  what  would  be  with 
you,  reckless  diversion.  The  upsetting  of  a  boat  with  its 
load  of  excursionists,  no  matter  where,  results  in  merely 
a  harmless  frolic.  The  human  body  there  sinks  in  the 
water  only  a  little  above  its  middle,  and  we  have  contrived, 
by  web-like  fastenings  to  the  hands  and  feet,  a  means  of 
propulsion  so  rapid  as  to  nearly  equal  our  speediest  loco- 
motion on  the  land.  During  our  long  summers,  when 
the  temperature  of  the  water  is  agreeable,  lake  journeys, 
especially  by  the  young,  are  among  the  most  popular 
amusements.  This,  to  you,  strange  condition  of  density'- 
is  producti^'e  of  a  state  of  affairs  partaking  of  the  humor- 
ous, although  leading  to  much  domestic  perplexity  and 
annoyance.  Our  children  take  to  the  water  in  the 
summer  season  as  naturally  as  your  water  fowl,  and  the 
loss  of  offspring  upon  the  lakes,  at  that  tender  age  which 
precludes  their  knowledge  of  the  return  direction,  is  the 
source  of  an  immense  amount  of  parental  disturbance  and 
worr3\      The  straying  of  children   upon   the  waters   is 


the;  man  from  mars.  95 

attended,  however,  with  but  Httle  danger ;  since,  if  by 
an}^  possibility  they  remain  undiscovered  during  the 
night,  they  can,  owing  to  the  buoyancy  of  their  bodies, 
sleep  tranquilly  and  deHghtfully  upon  their  backs,  resting 
upon  the  cushions  of  the  waters  until  rescued,  as  they 
are  sure  to  be  on  the  succeeding  day,  by  one  of  the 
numerous  airships  constantly  skimming  the  surface. 

"Our  land  is  generally  rolUng,  and  there  is  a  constant 
water  movement  in  the  channels  connecting  these  small 
bodies  of  water,  not  in  a  uniform  direction  toward  the  sea, 
as  with  you,  but  in  all  directions,  thus  saving  to  us  a 
power  for  mechanical  purposes  than  which  nothing  better 
can  be  conceived. 

"Our  cities,  as  you  may  imagine,  are  not  located  as 
yours  are ;  but,  since  one  place  is  as  good  as  another  for  a 
distributing  point,  the  rule  has  been  to  build  them  up 
where  conditions  are  favorable,  chiefly  considered  of  which 
have  been  the  health,  comfort,  and  pleasure  of  their 
inhabitants.  It  would  be  doing  us  injustice  to  believe 
that,  with  our  long  period  of  development  and  progress, 
we  have  not  achieved  something  far  ahead  of  you  in  the 
sanitary  and  labor-saving  appliances  about  us,  especially  in 
our  metropolitan  districts.      In  the  first  place,  we  use  no 


96  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

wood  whatever  in  the  construction  of  our  buildings, 
having  discovered  long  ago  a  tendency  during  its  slow 
decay  to  absorb  and  retain  the  germs  of  disease  and 
uncleanliness.  Neither  is  its  durability  satisfactory  ;  and 
its  ready  inflammability  and  lack  of  strength  render  it 
unfitted  for  our  purposes.  We  use,  instead,  a  metallic 
alloy  unknown  to  you,  which  is  susceptible  of  a  high 
polish,  as  inoxidizable  as  gold,  and  with  that  character  of 
penetrability  which  permits  fastening  with  nails  and 
shaping  by  tools,  with  even  greater  exactness  than  you 
work  with  wood. 

"  Our  cities  are  built  with  uniformity.  Their  growth 
is  invariably  from  the  center  outward.  Their  location  is 
not  a  matter  of  chance,  as  3'ours  generally  is.  No  site  is 
chosen  without  the  thorough  examination  and  approval 
of  a  sanitary  commission,  whose  knowledge  and  sincerity 
we  respect.  Their  foundation  is  made  by  the  laying  out 
of  a  large  circular  enclosure  for  the  location  of  all  public 
buildings,  among  which,  in  the  center  and  more  magnifi- 
cent than  all  in  its  imposing  loftiness  and  artistic  finish,  is 
our  temple  of  worship.  From  this  center  radiate  a  set  of 
wide  and  uniform  thoroughfares,  and  these  are  crossed  at 
regular  intervals  by  circular  ones,  which  begin  at  the 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  97 

center  and  are  repeated  to  the  circumferance  as  a  series  of 
concentric  rings." 

The  man  from  Mars  became  silent  for  a  moment,  and  I 
observed  that  for  the  first  time  his  face  was  clouded  a 
little.  He  had  spoken  of  a  temple  of  worship,  and  it  had 
started  in  my  mind  a  wish  to  hear  something  of  the 
society  and  morals  of  his  people,  and  how  they  compared 
with  us  ;  so  I  said  to  him  :  "I  am  grateful  to  you  for 
your  kindness  in  describing  some  of  the  material 
surroundings  of  your  people,  but  I  would  like  very  much 
to  know  something  of  your  inner  lives,  of  your  thoughts 
and  beliefs,  and  how  they  affect  your  social  condition." 

"My  brother,"  said  he,  "you  wish  me  to  make  a 
comparison  between  our  society  and  yours.  I  can  scarcely 
do  so  without  the  risk  of  giving  you  pain.  "With  our 
greater  advancement,  we  look  back  upon  you  as  travelers 
over  the  same  rough  paths.  Your  journey  is  even  a  more 
difficult  one  than  ours.  In  your  present  state,  you  appear 
to  us  as  a  world  of  discord,  confusion,  and  strife.  While 
we  were  long  ago  resolved  into  a  single,  homogeneous 
people,  you  are  still  divided  into  nations  and  countries, 
unridden  yet  of  the  barbarous  pride  of  combat.  We 
have  but  one  religion.     Yours  are  many  and  antagonistic. 


98  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

I  shall  briefly  make  for  you  the  comparison  you  wish, 
hoping  that  it  may  bring  no  sense  of  pain  to  you,  for,  to 
speak  the  truth,  the  cruelty,  the  intense  individual  selfish- 
ness, and  the  strange  superstitions  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Earth  will  pass  away  out  of  the  ages  to  come. ' ' 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  99 


CHAPTER  III. 

"Comparing  your  society  with  ours,"  began  my 
celestial  visitor,  "  is  like  describing  the  difference  between 
your  present  intellectual  condition,  and  the  state  you 
were  in  during  your  cave-dwelling  period.  In  review  of 
your  progress,  we  recognize  two  chief  agencies  at  work 
which  have  regenerated  us,  viz :  the  steady  growth  of 
human  sympathy,  and  the  fading  out  of  old  superstitions. 
In  our  advanced  development,  with  the  first  of  these,  we 
have  achieved  a  state  of  things  in  our  society  quite  likely 
beyond  your  hopes.  For  instance,  that  feeling  of  regard 
and  afl&nity  for  each  other  which  is  seldom  found  among 
you,  except  in  the  midst  of  family  ties,  we  hold  one  for 
another  among  all.  If  I  were  to  select  from  among  you 
a  domestic  circle,  the  most  refined  and  correct,  its  distur- 
bance and  anxiety  from  the  sorrows  and  misfortunes  of 
one  of  its  members  would  scarcely  represent  the  feeling 
in  a  body  of  our  people  for  the  misfortunes  of  any.  We 
are  shocked  at  your  cruel  indifference  to  the  feeUngs  of 
one  another.     When  we  see  one  of  you  sinking  by  the 


lOO  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

wayside,  by  means  of  one  of  the  evils  which  you  naturally 
inherit ;  or  overwhelmed,  perhaps,  with  the  penalties  of  a 
misadventure,  and  looked  upon  by  his  fellows  regardless 
of  his  smitten  condition,  we  can  find  no  parallel  to  it 
among  ourselves,  except  in  the  traditions  that  have  come 
to  us  out  of  our  remote  ages. 

' '  Your  national  antagonisms,  your  cruel  wars,  and  the 
immense  sums  wasted  by  you  in  maintaining  millions  of 
your  people,  trained  for  the  sole  purpose  of  slaughtering 
their  fellows,  we  regard  as  the  one  most  disgraceful  relic 
of  your  former  supremely  barbarous  state.  While,  by 
the  process  of  social  development,  all  your  most  cruel 
brutalisms  have  disappeared  within  the  range  of  your  higher 
civilization,  the  remaining  one,  of  sending  masses  of  3^our 
people  into  deadly  combat  for  the  settlement  of  political 
and  religious  questions,  is  retained  for  reasons  which  are 
not  wholly  in  concurrence  with  our  sense  of  right.  In 
the  first  place,  no  element  of  justice  enters  into  the  arbi- 
tration of  a  question,  whose  settlement  rests  entirely  upon 
the  physical  strength  of  the  contestants  ;  and  all  intena- 
tional  settlements  by  this  means  are  but  temporary,  when 
the  winning  party  has  not  coincidentally  a  prevailing 
sense  ot  justice  in  its  favor.     All  your  wars  and  battles, 


THE   MAN    FROM    MARS.  lOI 

without  a  result  on  the  side  of  equity  and  truth,  have  been 
fought  in  vain.  Your  bloody  misjudgments  of  one 
century  often  are,  and  are  ever  like  to  be,  reviewed  and 
resubmitted  to  the  same  sanguinary  and  delusive  arbitra- 
tion in  a  succeeding  one.  In  these  brutal  encounters  you 
stain  your  hands  and  garments  in  the  blood  of  your  fellow 
men  without  remorse,  because  the  wild  instincts  of  your 
nature  have  never  been  suppressed  in  that  particular 
direction.  Those  of  you  in  authority,  both  civil  and 
religious,  have  this  to  answer  for.  For  the  sake  of  a 
concurrence  in  the  selfish  schemes  of  your  rulers,  they 
have  instituted  a  series  of  glittering  rewards  for  the  most 
skillful  of  their  wholesale  murderers  and  you  have  in  that 
way  been  educated  to  honor  most,  those  who  could  deal 
the  heaviest  blows. 

"  We  cannot  take  a  survey  of  the  motives  which  have 
instituted  nearly  all  these  sanguinary  and  dreadful 
encounters  among  you,  without  a  sense  of  horror.  Your 
civilization  has  witnessed  only  a  single  one  of  these 
terrible  conflicts,  wherein  a  purely  humane  question  was 
involved.  Your  religions  have  not  only  been  used  to 
sanction  this  dire  carnage,  but  have  even  themselves  been 
participants  in  the  slaughter  of  millions  of  your  people. 


I02  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

You  are  not  yet  freed  from  the  savagery  of  your  remote 
fathers,  who,  ages  ago,  entered  those  fierce  contests 
between  tribe  and  tribe,  with  strong  personal  interests  in 
the  outcome.  The  loss  or  gain  of  a  battle  meant  to  them 
either  a  share  of  spoils  or  probable  torture  and  death. 
Yet  you  have  kept  aUve  this  inclination  to  collective 
combat,  when  individual  loss  or  gain  seldom  cuts  any 
figure  in  the  incentive  which  impels  you  to  battle.  And 
even  beyond  these  physical  encounters,  your  struggles  of 
life  appear,  from  our  point  of  view,  to  be  divided  between 
defense  and  attack,  like  the  beasts  lof  prey  which  still 
linger  on  your  borders. 

' '  Your  society  presents  to  us  the  spectacle  of  a  contin- 
uous skirmish  among  yourselves,  your  whole  mass  strug- 
gling to  mount  the  summit  of  their  individual  hopes  and 
ambitions,  wounding  and  bruising  each  other  with  cruel 
unconcern.  Our  experience  has  taught  us  that  this 
unhappy  social  condition  is  entirely  due  to  the  crude  and 
imperfect  stage  of  your  development.  Each  of  your  new 
epochs  brings  some  approach  towards  a  better  terrestrial 
life  ;  but  you  have  not  fairly  considered  nor  endeavored 
to  surmount  the  chief  obstacle  to  your  progress  in  that 
direction.     You  have  not  yet  learned  to  deal  justly  with 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  IO3 

one  another.  By  your  system  of  unequal  advantages, 
one  class  is  permitted,  and  even  "^encouraged,  to  prey  upon 
another  one.  One  or  more  of  you  will  enter  upon  a 
scheme  of  personal  gain  v^rithout  the  slightest  concern  for 
its  effect  upon  others.  You  have  permitted,  from  time  to 
time,  the  passage  of  laws  having  a  direct  atid  unmistak- 
able tendency  to  throw  your  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a 
few,  and  as  a  consequence,  to  increase  the  hards"hips  of 
the  many.  Your  generation  exults  over  all  preceding 
ones  in  its  progress  in  science  and  knowledge  ;  but  even 
that  has  not  served  to  soften  or  remove  the  asperities  of 
your  lives,  for  the  reason  that  most  of  the  available 
material  of  this  new  advance  has  been  prostituted  to  serve 
the  interests  of  the  few. 

"The  growth  of  your  social  betterment  rests  almost 
entirely  upon  the  total  of  your  disciplined  thought,  yet  by 
your  methods,  correct  thinking  is  the  rarest  thing  among 
you.  Your  social  field,  Instead  of  ^being  evenly  stirred 
and  seeded,  is  cultivated  in  spots  and  "patches.  Even  your 
knowledge  has  been  converted  into  a  weapon  of  tyranny 
and  oppression,  and  it  is  oftener  pursued  in  the  love  of 
self  than  for  the  benefit  of  kind.  Out  of  the  helplessness 
of  your  neglected  and  unfavored  masses,  come  the  greater 


I04  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

number  of  your  individual  accumulations  of  wealth. 

' '  In  our  stage  of  progress  such  a  state  of  things  is 
impossible.  The  performance  of  an  act  inflicting  injury  or 
even  discomfort  upon  one  or  more  fellov^r  beings  in  our 
society,  brings  its  punishment  in  the  general  condemna- 
tion and  disgrace  which  follows.  Active  benevolence, 
which  is  with  you  an  impulse,  sporadic  and  exceptional, 
is  with  us  an  ever-present  emotion,  and  upon  it  we  have 
founded  the  chief  pleasures  of  life.  We  have  no  eleemosy- 
nary establishments,  because  they  are  not  needed.  There 
can  be  no  suflfering  from  destitution  among  us,  since  each 
person  finds  in  his  own  surroundings  the  ready,  helping 
hand.  No  neglected  orphan  wanders  about  uncared  for, 
because  each  family  finds  its  pleasures  increased  by  the 
opportunity  to  bestow  shelter.  Bach  dwelling  is  open  to 
all,  and  no  assuring  salutation  is  needed  to  welcome  the 
visitor.  He  enters  the  house  of  the  stranger,  as  the 
stranger  would  enter  his,  by  the  right  of  the  universal 
brotherhood  which  prevails. 

' '  The  love  of  our  kind  forms  the  corner  stone  of  our 
single  religion,  just  as  the  like  is  made  the  foundation 
upon  which  your  many  creeds  are  built.  But  while  your 
religious  teachings   have  brought   no  great  fruits,  ours 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  IO5 

have  yielded  a  harvest  of  glorious  consequences.      If  it 
will  interest  you,  I  shall  tell  you  why." 


I06  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

At  the  dawn  of,  and  during  the  first  stages  of  their 
civilization,  the  people  of  the  Earth  found  themselves 
surrounded  with  natural  forces  which,  in  their  scant 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  universe,  were  ascribed  to 
the  arbitrar>'  and  willful  caprices  of  a  great  hidden  being. 
They  found  a  mysterious  power  above  them,  and  every- 
where an  overwhelming  evidence  of  design.  The 
unthinkable  and  unknown  character  of  the  infinite  and 
eternal  was  not  then  acknowledged ;  and  the  failure  of 
any  to  explain  this  unseen  intelligence  and  power  incited 
their  imaginations  to  do  for  them  what  the  closest  inves- 
tigation had  failed  to  accomplish.  As  may  have  been 
expected,  they  clothed  their  imaginary  deity  with  the 
qualities,  propensities,  and  passions  of  themselves.  Any 
violent  convulsion  of  nature  was  taken  by  them  as  a 
certain  sign  of  his  anger  ;  while  the  normal  state  of  rest, 
and  the  undisturbed  processes  of  animal  and  vegetable 
development  and  growth  were  looked  upon  as  concessions 
in  their  special  favor.     From  a  belief  in  the  supers- isi  on 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  I07 

of  the  deity  over  every  single  one  of  the  innumerable 
processes  of  nature,  they  naturally  imbibed  the  idea  that 
they  each  were  objects  of  his  personal  watchfulness  and 
attention,  and  as  a  consequence,  that  all  the  fortunes  and 
vicissitudes  of  their  lives  were  dependent  upon  his  moods. 
It  may  very  well  be  supposed  that  with  this  conception 
of  the  deity,  the  chief  purp0!=e  of  life  would  be  to  find 
favor  with  Him,  to  discover  bis  wishes,  and  to  learn  his 
commands  ;  since,  in  accordance  with  this  simple  and 
crude  idea,  every  one's  success  and  comfort  in  life 
depended  upon  his  conciliation.  With  these  views  of 
nature  and  the  universe,  they  came  in  due  time  to  observe 
that  •  within  themselves  were  feelings  and  sentiments 
entirely  apart  from  the  ordinary  epicurean  imptdses  which 
governed  them.  We  may  imagine  in  those  cruel  times 
the  warrior  standing  over  his  prostrate  victim  with 
upraised  club,  stayed  in  the  act  of  killing  him  by  a  senti- 
ment of  pity,  and  enjoying  afterward  as  a  result  of  his 
compassion  a  pleasure  which  was  as  strange  and  unac- 
countable to  him  as  his  first  sight  of  a  comet.  There  was 
no  apparent  motive  whatever  for  his  humane  act.  On 
the  contrary,  it  had  deprived  him  of  spoil,  and  reduced 
the  honor  of  his  victory.     And  so,  all  the  inclinations  to 


I08  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

virtue  which  brought  no  material  and  immediate  rewards 
were  regarded  as  mysterious  and  inexplicitable  as  the 
great  hidden  power,  and  by  a  very  natural  sequence  of 
reasoning,  a  part  of  it. 

As  your  civilization  advanced,  it  was  to  be  seen  that  the 
virtues,  and  especially  those  which  had  a  direct  influence 
upon  material  welfare,  grew  and  enlarged.  The  path  to 
honor  was  no  longer  exclusively  through  carnage  and 
victory,  and  the  possession  and  cultivation  of  certain 
virtues  brought  consideration  and  respect.  It  was  at  this 
critical  stage  of  your  progress  that  there  was  inflicted  upon 
you  an  evil  greater  than  any  your  people  have  known. 
You  were  not  content  with  viewing  the  deity  as  we  do 
from  afar,  and  with  accepting  the  impulses  of  virtue  as  a 
part  of  yourselves,  instituted  for  the  wise  purpose  of  a 
continuous  self-development  toward  a  better  earthly  life  ; 
but  instead,  in  your  unreasonable  yearning  to  communi- 
cate with  the  supreme  Author,  you  surrendered  yourself 
to  the  wiles  of  the  seers,  and  became  the  willing  dupes  of 
their  delusions. 

There  is  nothing  more  unhappy  to  tell  of  you  than  the 
consequences  of  this  grave  error.  Your  assumed  posses- 
sion of  the   commands  and  wishes  of  the  Deity   in   the 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  IO9 

shape  of  a  revelation,  has  proved  more  a  misfortune  than 
a  blessing  to  you.  In  the  first  place,  it  has  lowered  your 
conception  of  the  Deity  below  ours.  It  has  turned  your 
religion  into  a  contest.  It  has  rendered  possible  the 
establishment  of  certain  ecclesiastical  bodies  among  you, 
who,  while  assuming  entire  control  of  the  morals  of  your 
people,  are  beset  in  their  internal  parts  with  all  the  vices 
which  come  from  cruelty,  cupidity,  and  love  of  power. 
Besides,  your  formulated  conditions  of  punishments  and 
rewards  have  degraded  religion  from  a  cultivation  of 
virtue  for  itself,  and  the  immediate  good  it  brings,  to  a 
selfish  scramble,  each  one  struggling  to  shoulder  his  way 
into  the  midst  of  celestial  delights. 

It  can  be  easily  understood  why  your  rehgion,  with  all 
its.  crudities  and  superstitions,  has  taken  so  firm  a  hold 
upon  your  society.  You  are  constituted  as  we  are,  with 
the  same  inherent  elements  of  progress.  The  steady 
increase  of  your  affinity  for  the  virtues,  and  those  who 
practice  them,  is  a  marked  quality  of  your  career,  and  as 
they  all  lead,  in  one  way  or  another,  towards  that  union 
of  interests  which  constitutes  the  perfect  social  state,  you 
are  thereby  impelled  by  a  natural  and  providential  desire 
to  build  them  up.     So  that,  as   a   matter  of  fact,   there 


no  the;  man  from  mars. 

being  an  inherent  love  of  goodness  ingrafted  in  your  very 
natures,  your  religious  creeds  have  attracted  you  to  them, 
and  held  you  in  fetters,  under  the  false  theory  that  the 
good  within  you  is  but  a  contribution  from  their  exclu- 
sive and  abundant  sources  of  supply. 

It  has  been  your  misfortune  to  be  held  captive  through- 
out your  progress  by  the  shrewd  designs  of  your  seers 
and  prophets,  who  have  not  failed  until  recently  to  supply 
you  with  an  occasional  change  of  supernatural  pabulum, 
to  meet  the  new  wants  of  a  steadily  advancing  develop- 
ment. 

When  at  a  certain  stage  of  your  civilization,  about  two 
thousand  years  ago,  you  had  attained  a  point  of  intellect- 
ual culture  among  the  few,  the  fruits  of  which  have  been 
reflected  upon  you  to  this  day,  in  some  of  the  grandest 
recorded  achievements  of  human  thought,  and  while  the 
masses  were  left  to  take  their  undirected  way  among  the 
empty  superstitions  which  conceded  nothing  to  the  grow- 
ing human  sympathy,  a  seer  appeared  among  you,  who 
served  rather  as  a  suggestion  than  as  an  immediate 
success.  After  the  lapse  of  sufficient  time  from  his  death 
to  allow  full  scope  for  romance,  there  was  built  up  out  of 
his   memory  by  your   seers  a  picture  of  all   the   virtues 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  Ill 

which  had  been  growing  within  your  hearts,  so  entirely- 
adapted  to  the  new  age  that  all  the  pent-up  forces  of 
human  sympathy  within  its  scope  and  influence  surren- 
dered to  it.     But  what  might  have  been  a  triumph  and  a 
boon  to  you  in  the  new  impetus  to  a  better  and  broader 
humanity,  unfortunately  held  concealed  within  itself  the 
subtle  machinery  of  your  seers  and  prophets,  and  was 
guarded  by  their  evil  eyes,  so  that  with  this  tremendous 
lever  to  move  you  in  the  direction   of  their  purposes, 
instead  of  advancing  you,  they  have  turned  your  civiliza- 
tion back  upon  itself  more  than  a  thousand  years.     No 
historical  fact  is  more  capable  of  demonstation  than  this. 
None'  has  been  more  persistently  and  ingeniously  denied, 
and  no   natural  sequence  ever  followed  more  directly  a 
moving  cause.     From  a  free  and  independent  exercise  of 
the  intellectual  activities  in  the  direction  of  science,  art, 
philosophy,  and  all  knowledge  pertaining  to  yourselves, 
the  Earth  upon  which  you  dwell,  and  the  universe,  so  far 
as  your    vision    extends,    the    whole    current  of   your 
thoughts  was  turned  by  the  new  doctrines  toward  a  para- 
dise, compared  with  which  all  things  of  the  Earth  were 
trifles.     When  you  were  brought  by  the   fascination   of 
these  promises,  and  the  unflagging  efforts  an  interested 


1 1 2  THB  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

body  of  ecclesiastics,  to  a  general  oelief  in  these  doctrines, 
you  sank  into  an  intellectual  torpor,  from  which  you  only 
emerged  by  a  protest  of  your  reason  not  yet  wholly 
suppressed. 

You  cannot  fail  to  see  the  utterly  dehumanizing 
tendency  of  the  influences  which  surrounded  you  for  so 
many  centuries.  The  common  aims  and  purposes  of  your 
lives  were  submerged  by  the  one  engrossing  wish  to  reach 
heaven ;  and  while  your  imagination  was  carried  away 
by  its  picture,  you  were  led,  without  hesitation,  to  place 
your  feet  upon  the  neck  of  any  earthly  enterprise  that 
seemed  to  stand  in  its  way. 

From  the  beginning  of  your  history  you  have  accepted 
one  object  of  worship  after  another,  each  an  ideal  imper- 
sonation of  the  goodness  which  was  inseparately  a  part 
of  yourselves,  and  which  was  given  to  you  for  the  wise 
purpose  of  making  your  society  possible,  and  to  perfect 
it ;  just  as  the  parental  instinct  was  bestowed  upon  you 
to  protect  your  infants.  All  these  subjects  of  adoration 
have  perfectly  reflected  your  intellectual  condition,  and 
have  been  discarded,  one  after  another,  as  they  outlived 
their  uses ;  until  you  are  just  now  beginning  to  realize, 
that  for  all  these  many  centuries  you  have  been  virtually 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  II3 

worshipping  yourselves.  Your  present  ideal  will,  in  time, 
share  the  fate  of  those  which  preceded  it,  and  in  the 
absence  of  a  prevailing  superstition,  your  seers  luckily 
cannot  build  up  for  you  another  one.  Your  long  period 
devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  phantoms  is  rapily  passing  away, 
and  your  new  age  of  rationalism  is  approaching.  You 
have  no  just  conception  of  the  evils  it  will  remove,  and 
the  glories  it  has  in  store  for  you. 

The  difference  between  your  present  and  future  religion 
can  be  easily  outlined.  Your  present  religion,  from  a  long 
course  of  erroneous  teaching,  is  intense,  aggressive 
and  hysterical.  It  feeds  and  fattens  itself  upon  the 
miseries  of  life,  which  it  does  not  undertake  to  remove, 
except  in  a  meretricious  way  for  effect.  Your  religion  of 
the  future  will  be  tranquil  and  voluntary,  and  its  chief 
mission  will  be  to  permanently  reduce  the  evils  and  misfor- 
tunes of  life  to  a  minimum.  The  impulses  of  your 
present  religion  are  entirely  apart  from  the  moral  sense, 
a  significant  fact  easily  substantiated  by  a  glance  over  the 
ever>'day  life  of  your  people.  Except  in  their  observance 
of  religious  forms,  your  devout  are  not  distinguished 
from  your  profane.  The  practical  \irtues  are  no  greater 
among  believers  than  among  unbelievers.      Your  coming 


114  THK  MAN   FROIJ   MARS. 

religion  will  be  founded  upon  the  moral  sense,  and  will  be 
inseparable  from  it.  It  will  support  no  doctrine  of  a 
ready  and  convenient  atonement  for  bad  acts,  as  the 
present  one  does.  It  will  teach  you  that  there  can  be  no 
complete  reparation  of  an  evil  deed  except  in  its  undoing, 
and  that  such  an  act,  once  performed,  spreads  its  dire 
consequences  in  accordance  with  its  enormity  over  a  part 
or  the  whole  career  of  the  doer.  It  will  not  undertake  to 
unburden  the  conscience  of  a  crime,  nor  to  give  assurance 
of  celestial  bliss  to  the  most  heinous  of  offenders,  upon 
the  trifling  and  fallacious  compliance  with  religious  forms. 
Your  peculiar  religious  beUefs  have  so  shaped  and 
moulded  your  character  that  we  have  obser^'^ed,  what  you 
are  not  likely  to  see  of  yourselves,  certain  traits  or  inclin- 
ations which  are  not  promising  as  factors  in  your  ultimate 
regeneration.  Your  churches,  with  the  shrewd  purpose 
of  rendering  their  services  invaluable,  have  given  you  to 
believe  that  your  natural  tendencies  are  evil,  and  that  the 
unavoidable  misfortunes  and  sorrows  of  your  lives  are  but 
penalties  for  your  many  misdeeds.  The  general  accep- 
tance of  this  belief  has  lowered  your  pride,  and  given 
3'ou,  to  some  extent,  that  character  of  dejection  and 
submissiveness  which  is  entirely  subversive  to  the  attain- 


the;  man  from  mars.  115 

ment  of  any  destiny  to  be  reached  by  yourselves. 

There  is  a  quaUty  of  mind  which  we  aclinowledge  as, 
above  all  others,  the  one  which  has  assisted  us  to  our 
present  very  desirable  social  condition,  and  that  is  the 
feeHng  to  resist  the  perpetration  of  a  mean  or  bad  act,  on 
account  of  the  sense  of  degradation  it  inflicts  upon  the 
feeHngs  of  the  doer.  This  motive  of  conscience,  so 
plainly  the  ofispring  of  self-esteem,  and  growing  out  of  a 
cultivation  of  the  mind  alone,  without  any  regard  what- 
ever to  creed  influences  or  teachings,  is  totally  ignored, 
either  as  a  promoter  of  virtue  or  preventive  of  vice,  by  all 
the  religions  that  have  existed  upon  your  planet.  The 
reason  for  this  is  easily  explained.  Under  the  knowledge 
that  a  cultivation  of  the  mind  and  conscience,  without 
creed  influence,  was  capable  of  doing  for  you  a  better 
service  in  the  advancement  of  your  morals  than  your 
churches  have  performed,  it  has  been  made  a  part  of  their 
doctrine  to  belittle  and  abuse  your  purely  intellectual 
faculties,  under  the  unwarranted  and  unreasonable  impu- 
tation that  the  free  exercise  of  your  reason  was  an 
assumption  beyond  your  right.  And  all  this,  too,  in  face 
of  the  overwhelming  evidence  about  you,  that  the  most 
corroding  and  dangerous  of  your  vices  germinate  and 


Il6  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

seed  themselves  only  in  places  where    the   mind  lies  in 
fallow. 

There  comes  to  us  from  our  remote  ages,  through 
tradition  and  historj-,  an  account  of  some  superstitious 
beliefs,  but  it  has  been  our  good  fortune  never  to  have 
had  them  built  up  into  a  system  so  overbearing  and  harm- 
ful as  yours  has  been.  It  cannot  be  said  of  us  that  we 
ever  denounced  honest  intellectual  efforts  in  any  direction, 
or  that  we  ever  regarded  the  expression  of  opinions 
founded  on  the  dictates  of  reason  as  crimes,  and  your 
punishment  of  such,  with  all  its  atrocious  and  heart-rend- 
ing details,  serves  as  a  lesson  for  the  whole  universe  of 
worlds  never  to  put  trust  in  the  smooth  tongues  and 
insinuating  ways  of  the  seers,  for  the  spirit  of  fairness 
and  truth  is  not  in  them.  Your  restrictions  and  punish- 
ments of  the  free  expression  of  thought,  inaugurated  by 
the  corporate  organization  of  your  present  rehgion,  and 
maintained  with  more  or  less  rigor  to  the  present,  has 
left  its  blighting  effects  upon  your  society  by  encouraging 
some  of  the  meanest  of  your  vices.  The  assumption  that 
one  of  you  shall  not  have  the  right  to  convey  to  another 
his  opposing  convictions  upon  any  religious  question  is  so 
outrageously  unjust,  that  it  never  could  have  been  carried 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  II7 

out  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  general  belief  that  it 
was  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  and  purposes  of  the 
Almighty.  Such  a  denial  of  the  natural  right  of  mankind 
could  only  be  enforced  when  a  majority  of  the  multitude 
became  converts  to  the  doctrines  which  favored  it.  The 
leaders  of  religious  persecution,  during  the  centuries  of 
church  control,  were  merely  carrying  out  the  wishes  of 
this  majority.  The  spirit  of  intolerance,  once  abroad, 
became  the  parent  of  those  habits  of  concealed  thought, 
moral  cowardice  and  hypocricy,  which  even  to  the 
present,  so  rule  among  you,  that  sincerity  in  expressing 
religious  belief  is  not  universal.  In  deferance  to  the 
lingering  opinion  among  a  large  body  of  your  people 
that  a  dissension  from  old  modes  of  religious  thought  is 
displeasing  to  the  Almighty,  and  dangerous  to  society, 
many  of  you  are  constantl}^  led  to  veil  their  thoughts  on 
these  questions,  in  dread  of  the  social  consequences 
which  would  follow  their  frank  avowal.  Many  of  skeptical 
tendencies  are  thus  induced  to  hide  their  convictions  in 
fear  of  disturbing  their  safe  and  comfortable  positions  in 
society.  By  silently  working  the  penalty  of  withholding 
their  political  and  social  support,  your  great  illogical 
multitude  backed  by  their  vigilant  church  organizations 


Il8  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

Still  maintain  a  terrorism  over  you.  Consequently,  your 
writers  are  guarded  in  their  lines,  your  public  speakers  in 
their  language,  your  teachers  in  their  instruction,  and 
your  statesmen  in  their  legislation,  that  each  shall  not  get 
beyond  the  soundings  of  orthodox  religious  belief,  while 
with  the  knowledge  of  your  time,  most  of  them  are 
conscious  in  their  inner  thoughts  that  they  are  trimming 
to  avoid  truth,  in  the  full  knowledge,  that  to  this  day 
upon  the  earth,  the  surest  human  preferment  is  only  for 
those  who  support  error  in  this  direction. 

The  most  lamentable  instances  to  be  found  among  you 
of  this  evasion  are  j^our  chief  institutions  of  learning.  Of 
all  places  these  should  be  the  first  to  lead  in  truth,  as  they 
are  best  pro\dded  in  all  the  equipments  to  find  it ;  yet 
under  the  prevailing  terrorism  their  predicament  is 
embarassing  and  pitiful.  While  holding  class  instructions 
in  evolution,  geology,  astronomy  and  kindred  sciences, 
they  hesitate  to  openly  deny  those  scriptural  fallacies  to 
which  their  knowledge  is  opposed,  and  the  farcial  spectacle 
is  daily  enacted  among  many  of  them  of  a  ceremonious 
reverance  for  these  fallacies,  and  at  all  times  an  artful 
evasion  of  any  denial  of  their  truth,  every  one  of  which  it 
is  their   especial  business   to  disprove  in  the   course    of 


THS  MAN    FROM    MARS.  11 9 

instruction. 

I  hope  you  will  not  infer  from  what  I  have  said  that 
the  people  of  Mars  have  not  great  reverence  and  venera- 
tion for  the  Deit}'.  Indeed,  it  is  the  universal  belief 
amongst  us,  that  the  animus  which  is  within  us  to  do 
good  to  ourselves,  and  to  make  pleasant  the  ways  of  life 
among  each  other,  is  but  the  prompting  of  that  divine 
presence  which  is  leading  us  aright  in  the  direction  of  the 
still  better  things  to  come.  As  we  see  in  all  living  things 
a  constant  development  upward  toward  a  state  of  perfec- 
tion, and  having,  of  all  creatures  else,  that  within  us  most 
susceptible  and  easy  of  advancement  in  the  universal 
march,  we  simply  take  our  place  in  the  line.  What  we 
have  accomplished  in  that  direction  in  our  goverment, 
society,  and  morals,  gives  us  new  heart  to  further  efforts, 
and  if  our  methods  may  be  of  any  service  to  you,  I  will 
give  you  some  further  account  of  them. 


I20  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  people  of  Mars  are  impressed  with  the  belief  that 
the  governments  of  the  Earth  have  made  no  great 
advance  in  the  benefits  and  usefulness  of  their  legislation 
during  the  last  two  thousand  years.  We  recognize 
amongst  you,  only  as  movements  of  progress,  some 
provision,  particularly  in  your  own  country,  for  the  free 
education  of  the  people,  a  few  sanitary  attentions,  and  a 
slight  awakening  to  the  interests  of  your  laboring  class, 
as  about  all  worth  mentioning.  It  is  true  that  your 
governments,  after  originating  themselves  with  only  the 
simplest  duties,  have  come  in  time,  as  your  civilization 
advanced,  to  take  on  increased  and  complicated  services. 
But  in  the  multiplication  of  their  duties,  there  is  unfor- 
tunately little  to  be  seen  but  an  extension,  in  various  direc- 
tions, of  their  first  purposes ;  which  may  be  briefly  stated 
as  a  defence  of  assault  from  without,  and  a  protection  of 
person  and  property  within.  We  have  come  to  regard 
the  obligations  of  goverment  as  something  beyond  these, 
and  this  difference  of  view  affords  a  marked  instance  of 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  121 

our  development  and  advance. 

Our  idea  of  life  is,  that  since  it  is  all  we  are  given  to 
know  from  the  first  to  the  last  stages  of  our  conscious- 
ness, it  is  our  duty  and  privilege  to  improve  it,  and  enjoy 
it  to  the  fullest  innocent  and  rational  extent ;  and  that  to 
this  end  there  can  be  no  sepp.ration  of  the  moral  and 
material  interests ;  for  it  is  but  an  honest  acknowledgment 
to  say,  that  constituted  as  we  all  are,  the  crown  of 
contentment  and  happiness  is  only  for  him  who  success- 
fully cultivates  both.  Under  this  belief,  the  general 
supervision  of  both  moral  and  material  affairs  is  placed  in 
the  hands  of  our  government.  Church  and  State  are 
therefore  one  with  us,  and  it  is  entirely  due  to  the  ration- 
alistic character  of  our  religion  that  the  alliance  has 
proved  so  conducive  to  our  progress  and  happiness. 
There  can  be  no  such  peaceable  and  continuous  union 
with  you  at  present,  because  from  the  nature  of  your 
religious  doctrines  there  must  be  a  conflict  of  authority  ; 
but  you  will  come  to  it  in  time,  as  out  of  it,  more  than  all 
else, — as  I  will  endeavor  to  show, — will  come  the  fullness 
of  your  destiny. 

Your  efforts  for  the  suppression  of  vice  and  crime,  since 
the  first  stages  of  your  history,  are  futile  to  a  degree  that 


122  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

must  be  appaliug  to  you,  and  the  cause  of  your  failure  is 
due  to  conditions  plainly  apparent  to  us.  These  condi- 
tions are  that  your  governments,  for  all  these  centuries, 
have  taken  no  official  cognizance  of  virtue,  and  have 
failed  to  see  that  there  existed  in  their  patronage  of  good 
deeds  that  tangible  reward  v^^hich  would  place  all  ambi- 
tion for  honor  and  prominence  among  them  on  uncom- 
promising terms  with  evil.  You  have  only  attempted  to 
suppress  crime  by  punishment,  while  the  powerful  stimu- 
lus to  virtue  which  your  governments  afford  of  precept 
and  example  have  been  neglected.  Although,  in  your 
undeveloped  state  of  greed  and  selfishness,  you  find  it 
unsafe  to  trust  your  material  interests  in  the  hands  of 
irresponsible  bodies  which  you  call  monopolies,  yet  you 
bestow  the  whole  keeping  and  guidance  of  your  morals 
upon  societies  and  organizations  of  you  fellow  men,  who 
are  even  less  responsible  to  authority  than  they.  Under 
this  state  of  things,  how  can  you  expect  anything  better 
than  your  present  chaotic  state  of  religion,  and  the  loose, 
unguided,  unrewarded,  and  wholly  spontaneous  morality 
of  your  people. 

Our  government,   in   the   furtherance  of  its  religious 
duties,  has  for  centuries  made  a  special  recognition  of  the 


THK  MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 23 

virtues,  and  particularly  those  which  bestow  good  upon 
others,  and  it  is  only  by  the  practice  of  such  that  public 
honors  are  achieved.  One  of  the  happiest  consequences 
of  this  has  been,  to  elevate  only  the  most  exemplary  of 
our  people  to  the  head  of  public  afiairs,  and  from  this 
comes  a  confidence  and  regard  between  our  representa- 
tives and  people,  which  you  can  scarcely  appreciate  after 
your  experience.  Goodness  therefore,  as  we  understand 
it,  is  the  only  path  to  honor,  and  the  necessary  high 
character  of  all  holders  of  public  trust  reflects  a  distinction 
greater  that  those  of  any  other  positions  in  life.  This  in 
turn,  as  you  may  readily  perceive,  induces  a  spirit  of 
emulation  to  reach  such  elevated  places,  beyond  all 
considerations  of  emolument. 

As  a  part  of  our  moral  system,  we  hold  the  education 
of  our  people  to  be  an  indispensible  and  necessary 
adjunct.  In  that  we  go  a  great  deal  further  than  what 
appear  to  us  your  narrow  and  mercenary  views.  In  a 
representative  government  like  your  own,  you  have  been 
constrained  to  adopt  a  system  of  free  education,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  the  safety  and  permanence  of  your 
institutions ;  and  with  no  other  motive  even,  it  is  surpris- 
ing that  you  will  be  divided  in  opinion  touching  the  extent 


124  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

to  which  learning  may  be  profitably  imparted  for  this  end 
alone ;  because,  to  us  it  seems  that  when  you  have 
conveyed  to  your  youth  no  more  than  the  elementary 
branches  of  learning,  you  have  provided  but  little  else 
than  a  convenience  to  them  in  the  business  affairs  of  life. 
It  is  only  when  the  higher  branches  are  acquired  that 
the  government  receives  an  equivalent  for  its  outlay,  in 
the  well-disciplined  and  safe  citizen  returned  to  it. 

We  have,  however,  motives  beyond  all  this  in  the 
education  of  our  masses,  and  chief  among  them  is  the 
purpose  to  furnish  knowledge  to  the  minds  of  all,  out  of 
which  good  may  be  naturally  evolved ;  and  thus  you  will 
see  at  once  how  learning  has  become  the  chief  part  of  our 
religion.  You  are  slow  to  acknowledge  the  great  value  of 
your  purely  secular  education  as  a  moral  agent,  because 
of  its  disturbance  recently  with  your  cherished  traditions  ; 
but  this  reason,  great  as  it  is,  is  supplemented  with  another 
one,  which  fully  accounts  for  the  earnest  opposition  of 
your  ecclesiastics.  So  long  as  the  learning  of  your 
schools  was  mixed  up  with  creed  influence  and  teachings, 
it  was  virtually  a  part  of  the  church,  and  in  harmony  with 
it,  but  on  a  separation  of  the  two,  they  became  enemies  by 
a  well  known  social  law  ;  your  churches  with  their  avowed 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  1 25 

purpose  of  improving  your  morals,  and  your  secular 
schools,  while  in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  occupy- 
ing the  same  competing  field. 

You  ma}'-  easily  imagine  that,  with  the  religious 
impulse  added,  we  have  carried  our  education  a  good 
deal  further  than  you.  We  consider  the  proposition 
unjust,  that  learning  should  only  be  bestowed  in  accord- 
ance with  the  occupation  or  station  in  life.  Your  planet 
has  always  been  beset  with  the  evil  of  social  classes, 
which  only  increases  with  the  advance  of  your  civilization. 
You  can  never  rid  yourselves  of  this  fruitful  source  of 
disturbance  except  by  our  method,  which,  as  a  matter  of 
public  policy,  pushes  the  education  of  every  individual  to 
the  point  of  his  capacity.  In  this  way  we  have  com- 
pletely obliterated  the  class  interests  and  feelings.  We 
have  been  enabled  to  do  this  under  conditions  which  you 
do  not  at  present  possess.  Instead  of  the  military  or 
martial  spirit  which  prevails  with  j^ou,  and  which  is  cul- 
tivated for  purposes  which  appear  to  us  unworthy  of  your 
age,  we  have  generated  among  ourselves  an  ambition  in 
the  ways  of  knowledge  which  takes  its  place. 

We  have  leaders  and  heroes  as  you  have,  but  not  one 
who  has  not  gained  his  honors  by  some  act  in  further- 


126  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

ance  of  the  material,  intellectual,  or  moral  progress  oi  his 
race.  The  memories  of  your  greatest  men  are  more 
honored  by  us  than  by  yourselves.  Men  go  down  to  their 
graves  j^early  among  j^ou  whose  achievements  are  the 
admiration  and  talk  of  our  whole  people.  He  of  you 
who  discovered  the  theory  of  planetary  motion,  he  who 
found  the  law  of  gravitation,  and  he  also  who  ascertained 
the  principle  of  evolution  in  organic  life,  are  scarcely 
known  upon  the  Earth,  except  among  the  cultivated  few ; 
while  the  whole  world  of  Mars  is  impressed  with  the  ser- 
vices they  have  bestowed,  and  discuss  the  great  and  ever- 
lasting effects  of  their  work. 

We  have  found  much  in  the  path  of  science  that  would 
astonish  you,  and  at  each  discovery  the  achievement  was 
applauded  and  echoed  from  one  side  of  our  planet  to  the 
other.  At  each  one  of  these  advances  we  feel  ourselves 
getting  nearer  to  the  Deity.  A  triumph  of  science  with 
us  is  a  triumph  of  religion,  and  while  we  go  on  strength- 
ening ourselves,  and  taking  new  heart  at  each  step  in  the 
direction  of  knowledge,  a  like  progress  with  you  only 
brings  the  superstitious  framework  upon  which  your 
religion  is  built  into  decay. 

Our  religious  devotion  is  essentially  buoyant,  even  joy- 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 27 

ous.  The  sorrows  of  life  which  are  not  the  direct  and 
indirect  results  of  indiscretions,  and  violations  of  natural 
laws,  we  regard  as  an  inheritance  and  not  a  punishment, 
and  we  endeavor  in  all  conceivable  ways  to  lighten  them 
and  make  them  easier  to  bear.  Fcr  those  in  sickness 
among  us,  the  hand  of  love  and  sympathy  is  never  absent ; 
and  among  the  firm  and  undisturbed  convictions  of  phil- 
osophic thought,  death  is  only  a  regret  and  never  a  terror. 
Your  creeds  administer  to  the  final  end  in  all  ways  to  a 
point  of  agony ;  they  have  ingeniously  devised  a  theory 
of  horrors  for  it,  out  of  which  has  been  made  to  come 
their  chief  sustenance  and  support.  The  path  of  life 
which  they  declare  as  the  only  one  leading  into  the  prom- 
ised eternity  of  bliss,  is  the  tortuous  and  difl&cult  footway 
winding  like  a  maze  among  the  shadows  of  their  churches. 
Although  attentively  guided  throughout  in  this  pre- 
scribed journey  of  life  by  your  ecclesiastical  teachers,  and 
your  entrance  and  exit  made  difficult  without  their  help, 
yet,  by  the  very  nature  of  their  doctrines,  they  could  only 
bestow  upon  you  at  the  last  scene  of  all  a  torturing 
doubt.  We  have  promoted  the  serenity  of  death  by 
removing  as  far  as  possible  its  sorrow.  With  us,  the 
individual  in  his  last  moments  is  not  overcome  with  any 


128  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

sympathetic  dread  of  that  approaching  suffering  for  the 
wants  of  life  among  dependents,  which  so  often  couples 
the  agony  of  separation  with  an  overwhelming  sense  of 
despair,  as  your  society  is  constituted.  The  end  comes 
placidly  to  us,  in  the  belief  that  as  we  came  from  the 
Deity,  so  in  the  last  we  go  back  to  Him ;  that  the  life 
beyond  must  be  a  higher  life,  because  the  moral  sense 
grows  constantly  within  us ;  and  that  the  region  ahead  of 
us  must  be  a  free,  open,  and  hospitable  one,  with  no 
agonizing  barriers  separating  families  and  friends,  because, 
in  the  growth  of  our  tenderness  and  attachment  to  each 
other,  we  can  safely  predict  the  evolution  of  a  better  and 
happier  state. 

Prayer,  in  the  sense  that  it  is  understood  and  performed 
by  you,  we  regard  as  mere  superstition.  It  is  an  outcome 
of  your  lowest  stages  of  mental  evolution.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  that  willing  self-abasement  and  fear,  which  pros- 
trates the  savage  before  his  idol,  soliciting  aid  in  his 
works  of  carnage,  or  immunity  from  some  violated  law  of 
nature,  or  safety  from  some  convulsion  of  the  air,  land  or 
sea.  Carried  forward  into  your  civilization,  it  has  become 
no  less  unreasonable.  For  thousands  of  years  you  have 
been  daily  calling  on  the   Deity  for  favors,  not   one   of 


THK   MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 29 

which  has  been  granted,  except  seemingly  by  a  coinci- 
dence. The  most  conclusive  tests  have  failed  to  convince 
the  devout  among  you  of  the  fallacy  of  prayer,  because, 
as  an  institution  of  your  churches,  under  their  theory  of 
atonement,  it  furnishes  a  ready  escape  to  the  conscience  ; 
and  for  the  reason  also  that  it  affords  to  the  imagination, 
in  its  striking  and  novel  situations  of  converse  with  the 
author  of  worlds,  a  semblance  of  that  pleasure  which  the 
lowly  feel  for  concessions  from  the  great. 

It  is  quite  in  keeping  with  your  conceptions  of  the 
Deity  that  you  should  grovel  and  debase  yourselves  before 
Him.  The  whole  tenor  of  your  religious  thought  has 
been  made  to  take  on  this  color  of  self-degradation, 
which,  while  serving  to  throw  you  more  completely  into 
the  hands  of  your  theological  superiors,  is  not  warranted 
by  any  possible  relations  with  the  being  you  address. 
You  represent  upon  the  Earth,  as  we  do  on  our  planet, 
the  very  highest  form  of  life.  We  both  are  the  trium- 
phant outcome  of  a  process  established  by  the  great 
Author  infinite  ages  ago.  On  us  only,  among  all  beings, 
has  He  bestowed  the  wonderful  attributes  of  thought  and 
reason,  which  make  us  a  partpf  Himself  We  are  the  only 
inheritors,   by   his   own  beneficial   act,   of  the  power   to 


130  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

discover  and  eujoy  his  beautiful  methods  of  work,  and 
those  magical  transformations  of  mind  and  matter  which 
convert,  out  of  the  dead  ashes  of  the  past,  the  blooming 
present,  with  its  assuring  hope  of  a  fruition  to  come. 

What  hint  have  we,  therefore,  in  all  his  works,  that  He 
has  created  us  otherwise  than  as  a  labor  of  love,  and  as 
the  fullest  expression  of  an  evolutionary  skill,  which 
marks  all  things  about  us  ?  By  what  authority,  then,  are 
you  called  to  bow  yourselves  in  constant  self-abasement 
before  your  great  Father,  who,  with  parental  solicitude, 
has  thrown  open  the  whole  Earth  for  your  household,  has 
given  you  the  power  of  domination  over  all  creatures 
upon  it,  and  has  taught  you  to  make  playthings  of  the 
very  elements  which  surround  you  ?  By  what  authority, 
except  the  unworthy  example  of  your  own  barbarian 
instincts,  which  demand  for  place  and  power  a  homage, 
whose  degree  of  prostration  marks,  with  a  singular 
exactness,  your  career  all  along,  from  the  savage  ruler  to 
the  cultivated  monarch  ? 

Outside  of  the  fact  that  your  continuous  mendicancy 
has  accomplished  nothing  for  you,  you  have  an  abund- 
ance of  negative  evidence  to  hint  that  j^our  incessant 
supplication,  instead  of  bringing  to  you  favors  from  the 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  I3I 

Deity,  has  shadowed  upon  you  in  an  unmistakable 
manner  the  signs  of  his  displeasure.  For  as  he  has 
raised  you  gradually  out  of  the  lower  forms,  and  enlarged 
your  capacities,  until  in  the  last  he  has  taken  you  into 
his  confidence  so  far  as  to  teach  you  the  methods  of  his 
work,  and  to  deliver  up  to  you  the  hitherto  pent-up  forces 
for  your  convenience  and  use,  yet  in  the  progress  of  these 
concessions  it  is  to  be  noted  as  a  significant  fact,  that 
your  prayers  have  served  rather  to  obstruct  than  to 
promote  them.  Indeed,  as  there  is  nothing  so  conclu- 
sively the  evidence  of  divine  presence  and  help  as 
material  and  intellectual  progress,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
show,  in  the  record  of  terrestrial  things,  that  the  suprem- 
acy of  prayer  has  not  invariably  been  followed  by  a 
temporary  withdrawal  of  this  divine  assistance  and 
support. 


132  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Our  veneration  for  the  Deity,  which  is  truer  and  more 
sincere  than  yours,  arises  from  a  widely  different  concep- 
tion, lyooking  back  upon  the  ages,  and  what  they 
have  brought  to  us,  we  perceive  that  each  new  develop- 
ment in  matter  brings  an  increase  of  those  qualities 
which  give  us  pleasure  to  behold.  Beginning  with  the 
most  unattractive  shapes,  this  process  of  change  in 
organization  and  symmetry,  by  an  unalterable  law  of  the 
Creator,  bring  to  us  out  of  the  ugliness  of  the  past  the 
beautiful  of  the  present.  Since,  therefore,  we  see  Him 
constantly  at  work,  transforming  the  ugly  into  the  beau- 
tiful, we  believe  He  is  pleased  with  the  colors,  shapes, 
and  qualities  of  things  which  delight  our  own  cultivated 
senses.  Acting  then  on  this  conviction,  we  surround 
ourselves  with  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  art. 

The  change,  in  the  form  of  matter,  is  not  more  instruc- 
tive than  the  steady  modification  of  intelligence,  which, 
from  its  primitive  ignorance,  superstition,  and  brutality, 
has  gradually  been  raised  step  by  step  to  its  present  higher 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 33 

grade  of  thought  and  action.  We  recognize  here  a  fact 
most  important  and  significant  to  us.  While  the  divine 
energy  is  steadily  at  work,  converting  lower  forms  of 
matter  into  higher  ones,  we  are  given  no  part  in  the 
proceeding.  It  goes  on  without  our  assistance,  and  we 
have  no  power  to  diminish  or  accelerate  its  steady  onward 
course.  It  is  widely  different  with  intelligence.  That  is 
given  into  our  hands,  with  all  its  grand  possibilities.  In 
that,  we  have  evidence  of  the  divine  confidence  to  pro- 
mote its  advancement  in  view  of  the  blessings  it  holds  in 
store.  Taking  this  view,  we  have  for  centuries  cultivated 
the  mind  in  all  directions  of  knowledge  and  feeling,  as 
the  chief  part  of  our  religion.  The  motion  of  the  spheres 
is  not  more  certainly  the  work  of  this  great  being,  than 
are  these  progressive  changes  in  mind  and  matter. 

We  believe  vice  and  ugliness  to  be  convertible  terms, 
the  latter  a  quality  due  to  imperfectly  developed  matter, 
and  the  first  a  property  of  intelligence  in  the  same  imper- 
fect state ;  just  as  beauty  and  virtue  describe  together,  or 
separately,  the  same  advanced  evolution. 

But  while  working  in  harmony  with  the  Deity,  and 
assisting  in  his  purposes,  we  have  constantly  in  view,  as 
an  incentive  to  action,  the  consummation  or  goal  to  which 


134  THK   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

all  these  changes  tend.  We  believe  the  outcome  to  be  a 
spiritual  life  with  all  things  knowable,  and  a  state  of 
perfection  and  happiness  beyond  our  present  conception. 
Happiness,  then,  being  a  religious  aspiration,  we  promote 
it  in  all  ways  to  the  innocent  and  reasonable  inclinations 
of  our  present  state. 

Our  religion  is  consequently  more  jubilant  than  solemn. 
We  have  no  torments  in  store  in  it,  nor  long  drawn 
agonies  and  mortifications  of  the  flesh.  Its  only  business 
with  death  is  to  smooth  its  pillow,  and  to  reduce  its  atten- 
dant sorrows  to  the  minimum.  To  the  misfortunes  of  the 
present  our  religion  extends  its  hand  of  sympathy  and 
material  help.  To  what  purpose  should  it  introduce  and 
dwell  upon  the  miseries  and  sorrows  of  the  past?  We 
let  the  dead  ages  rest.  We  can  find  nothing  in  their 
ashes  to  compare  with  the  living.  The  present  is  better 
than  the  past,  as  the  future  will  be  better  in  exact  meas- 
ure with  the  new  truths  discovered,  and  the  old  fallacies 
cast  aside.  You  rake  among  the  emanations  of  an  early 
and  imperfect  development  for  monitors  and  guides,  and 
do  honor  to  them  for  the  mysteries  they  invoke.  You 
place  the  withered  hand  of  the  mummy  into  the  warm 
palm  of   the  living,  and  your  ceremony  of  introduction 


THE  MAN    PROM    MARS.  1 35 

is  a  prayer  that  the  living  body  may  never  depart  from 
the  dead  form. 

The  untenable  and  unsupportable  premises  upon  which 
your  religions  are  based  will  lead  to  their  decay.  Nothing 
of  them  will  remain  to  you  but  their  spirituality.  Shorn 
of  their  superstitions,  and  guided  by  the  intellect,  the 
spiritual  part  of  them  will  be  retained  by  you  as  a  jewel 
repolished  and  in  a  new   setting. 

The  orthodox  among  you  are  suspicious  of  the  inroads 
of  science,  unaware  of  the  fact  that  in  due  time  it  will 
fix  upon  your  belief  the  conviction  of  a  future  spiritual 
existence  without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  When  you 
will,  have  arrived  at  that  point,  your  ways  of  morality 
and  progress  will  be  so  much  increased,  that  you  will 
regard  your  previous  advancement  as  trifling.  To  some, 
your  science  appears  to  lend  encouragement  to  materialis- 
tic beliefs.  This  is  only  your  half  knowledge.  For  some 
time  to  come  your  discoveries  will  tend  in  that  direction 
of  thought,  but  all  this  will  be  superseded  with  a  firm 
conviction  of  the  existence  of  the  Deity,  and  your  steady 
approach  to  Him.  The  period  of  danger  to  you  will 
arrive  when  you  will  have  made  the  discovery,  as  we 
have   centuries  ago,  of  what  may  be  described  in    your 


136  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

language  as  the  uuiversal  diffusion  of  intelligence  amongst 
all  matter,  inorganic  as  well  as  organic. 

It  may  be  a  startling  proposition  to  announce  to  you 
that  the  quality  which  gives  you  the  power  of  abstract 
thought  is  possessed  in  a  lower  degree  by,  for  instance, 
the  stones  which  lie  beneath  your  feet ;  yet  such  is  the 
case,  for  we  have  demonstated  beyond  a  doubt  that  the 
chemical  forces  and  affinities  are  nothing  else  but  low, 
restricted,  and  insensible  forms  of  intelligent  action.  The 
fact  is  best  shown  by  the  building  up  of  organic  bodies 
in  their  multiplication  of  cells.  Each  cell  arranges  itself 
in  place,  and  makes  way  to  its  successor,  under  an  inheri- 
ted impulse  of  action  from  which  it  is  unable  to  depart. 
What  are  known  among  you  as  natural  forces,  are  merely 
forms  of  unconscious  and  restricted  intelligences,  which 
have  only  the  power  to  act  in  limited  directions.  They 
both  build  up  matter  and  tear  it  down  for  us.  They 
shape  the  crystal  with  mathematical  uniformity,  and 
mark  out  the  form  of  the  plant  with  unerring  precision. 
The  character  of  the  agency  bears  no  proportion  to  the 
magnitude  of  its  work.  These  low,  unconscious  forms 
of  intelligence,  which  inspire  the  plant  cell  to  build  up  its 
fanciful  elevations,  and  the  infinitesimal  atom  to  seek  after 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  137 

and  embrace  its  affinity,  are  precisely  the  same  as  that 
which  directs  the  sea  of  worlds  upon  their  swift  and 
unvarying  paths.  And  yet  with  all  their  exactitude  and 
infinity  of  scope,  they  are  as  much  below  that  indepen- 
dent, self-conscious  intelligence  which  guides  our 
thoughts  and  actions,  as  the  protoplasm  is  beneath  the 
most  highly  organized  and  perfect  fonn. 

Your  theology  has  degraded  you  with  the  belief  that 
you  are  mendicants,  enjoying  the  favors  of  life  as  mere 
concessions  from  an  all-powerful  and  exacting  master  ; 
and  that  your  position  in  the  cosmos  bears  a  close  relation 
to  the  insignificance  of  your  material  bodies,  and  your 
feeble  power  in  the  stupendous  energies  which  surround 
you.  Your  science  will  elevate  you  with  the  knowledge 
that  you  are  peers  in  the  great  universe,  and  that  your 
stature  has  no  comparative  measure  for  its  proportions  in 
the  height  and  breadth  of  your  material  world.  It  will 
teach  you  that  by  slow  degrees,  and  through  millions  of 
ages,  you  have  become  that  elimination  of  the  spiritual 
out  of  the  vast  number  of  divided  intelligences  which 
have  built  up  and  governed  your  natural  world ;  that  you 
are  the  harvest  and  the  fruition  of  the  innumerable  lower 


138  THE   MAN   PROM    MARS. 

intelligences,  which  were  sown    broadcast  in  the   begin- 
ning to  do  their  potent  work. 

In  pursuing  these  matters,  your  scientists  will  arrive  at 
a  number  of  important  truths,  entirely  in  opposition  to 
some  of  your  present  apparently  established  theories.  In 
your  speculations  touching  the  future  state,  there  is  a 
tendency  which  I  cannot  designate  by  any  other  name  in 
5'our  language  than  narrowness.  You  have  come  so 
recently  to  realize  the  immense  sizes  and  distances  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  that  their  comparison  with  your  former 
constricted  views  in  that  direction  has  produced  a  sense 
of  helplessness  in  the  attempt  to  fathom  these  infinite 
spaces.  But  ages  of  contemplation  will  serve  to  broaden 
your  views,  as  well  as  to  expand  your  hopes.  Encom- 
passing or  beside  this  broad  universe  we  have  evidence  of 
a  spiritual  region,  like  the  firm  land  bordering  upon 
5'our  own  great  ocean,  which  great  body  of  water  to  the 
lower  animal  life  within  it  is  just  as  limitless  and  profound 
as  the  great  cosmos  is  to  yourselves. 

You  have  but  recently  discovered  a  process  of  nature, 
by  whose  slow  changes,  animal  life  has  been  altered,  and 
its  species  modified  and  improved.  You  know  that  the 
atmosphere,  which  encircled  your  Earth  at  the  beginning. 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  139 

was  not  of  a   composition  to  support  its  present   highly 
organized   respiring  life,  and   that   consequently,  behind 
the  ages  the  only  living  and  moving  things  upon  your 
planet    were   the   scant    air-consuming    creatures,    who 
inhabited   the   water.     Among  the   dark  and  cavernous 
depths  of  your  oceans,  and  the  slimy  ooze  of  your  rivers 
and  lakes,  were  located  the  cradles,  where  nature  began 
moulding  the  present  graceful  living  and  moving  forms 
which  now  roam  over  your  solid  surface.      The  Creator's 
delicate  laboratory,  for  the  beginning  of  animal   life,  was 
placed  among  the  equable  temperatures,  and  soft  walls  of 
water  below  the  variable  and  dessicating   atmosphere, 
which  everywhere  surmounted  it.     Yourselves,  as  well  as 
all  other  living  and  breathing  creatures,  had  your  founda- 
tions of  life  laid  in  the  waters  of  the  earth,    a   fact,    of 
whose  significant  reminder  is,  that  nature   has   continu- 
ously provided  for   the   protective  presence  of  water   in 
your  embryo  womb  growth. 

In  your  germal  life,  the  universe  seemed  to  you  nothing 
but  a  vast  and  unlimited  expanse  of  water.  The 
submerged  earth  upon  which  you  lay  and  rested,  with  its 
murky  surroundings,  and  the  expanse  of  sunless  liquid 
clouds  above  you,  was  the  only  world  and  universe  you 


140  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

knew.  By  what  authority  of  reason  or  science  then  do 
you  conclude,  that  the  stage  of  evolution,  which  brought 
you  out  into  the  glorious  sunshine  and  free  air,  and 
adapted  you  with  the  form  and  comprehension  you 
possess,  is  the  end  ?  From  the  cold,  sluggish,  and  uncon- 
scious, to  the  warm,  alert,  and  intellectual,  is  no  greater 
a  step  of  progress,  than  the  coming  one,  which  will  make 
clear  to  your  understanding  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
nature,  so  unknowable  and  unthinkable  in  your  present 
immaturity.  Out  of  yotu:  next  stage  of  spiritual  suprem- 
acy, you  will  look  back  upon  the  present,  with  all  its 
conditions,  so  condemned  by  the  contrast  of  better  things 
attained,  that  it  will  be  but  little  more  to  you  than  is  now 
the  repulsive  uncanny,  and  incommunicable  habitat  of 
your  beginning. 


^  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS.  I4I 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  confidential  relations  between  our  government  and 
people  have  given  it  a  parental  character.  It  has  conse- 
quently been  the  study  of  our  legislation  for  ages  past  to 
assuage,  as  far  as  possible,  those  natural  evils  which 
creep  in  as  the  result  of  unrestricted  social  forces. 
Regarding  the  whole  mass  of  our  inhabitants  as  a  family, 
the  government  could  never  feel  that  its  duty  was  faith- 
fully performed,  while  a  number  of  its  people  were, 
relating  to  the  ordinary  enjoyments  of  life,  in  a  state  of 
suppression  from  any  removable  cause.  You  began  your 
civilization,  just  as  we  began  ours,  by  the  crystallization 
of  society  into  two  classes.  Those  who  at  first,  by  thrift, 
acquisitiveness,  or  strong  arms,  became  possessed  of  sufii- 
cient  property  to  escape  the  necessity  of  daily  toil  for  the 
sustenance  of  life  ;  and  those  who,  by  the  absence  of  these 
qualities  or  from  other  causes,  were  obliged  from  day  to 
day  to  exercise  their  muscular  and  nervous  energies  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  found  it  profitable  to  use  and  pay 
for  them.     This  condition  of  society  is  a  natural  and  just 


142  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

one,  and  there  is  nothing  whatever  in  it  to  prevent  the 
largest  possible  amount  of  happiness  to  all.  But  before 
many  ages  we  discovered  that  the  interests  of  the  prop- 
erty class  and  the  labor  class  were  not  equally  equipped  to 
maintain  a  fair  and  equitable  relation  with  each  other. 
We  found  that  the  interests  of  labor  in  the  many  bore  no 
comparison  in  its  political  weight  with  the  great  power  of 
wealth  in  the  few ;  and  foreseeing  that  subj  ugation  in 
time,  of  one  by  the  other,  which  your  experience  has 
shown,  we  made  wide  provision  against  it. 

We  acknowledge  as  the  foundation  of  all  material 
progress  that  the  honest  accumulation  of  wealth  should 
be  the  privilege  of  all ;  and  that  the  rights  of  property 
should  be  protected,  and  the  enjoyment  of  it  secured  to 
everyone.  Yet  with  these  principles  firmly  and  success- 
fully carried  out  in  our  goverment,  we  have  for  many 
centuries,  considered  it  necessary  to  support  and  sustain 
the  interests  of  the  labor  class  by  special  legislative 
attention.  You  have  pursued  a  directly  opposite  course. 
From  the  beginning  of  your  history  the  privilege  of 
wealth  to  hold  labor  in  subjection,  and  to  use  it  as  an 
instrument  of  accumulation,  with  about  the  same  regard 
for   its   well  being  as  the  horse  in  the  collar  or   the  ox 


THK  MAN    FROM    MARS.  I43 

under  its  yoke,  has  prevailed,  without  the  enactment  of 
any  sincere  and  effective  law  to  assist  and  sustain  it  in 
its  unequal  contest.  On  the  contrary,  your  statute  books 
are  filled  with  oppressive  laws  against  the  labor  class  ; 
and  while  in  your  most  civilized  districts  these  unjust 
enactments  are  nearly  obsolete,  there  yet  remains  an 
average  over  your  planet  of  such  legal  and  social  suppres- 
sions of  the  class  whose  strong  arm  supports  you,  as  to 
be  reckoned  by  us  as  the  most  unhappy  and  discreditable 
feature  of  your  social  state. 

It  matters  not  how  your  economists  may  examine  and 
discuss  the  relations  of  labor  with  its  co-operative  interests, 
so  long  as  they  offer  no  proposals  of  relief  to  it  in  the 
unjust  burthen  it  bears  of  the  hardships  of  life.  Your 
common  view  that  labor  must  be  unavoidably  submitted 
to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  and  that,  consequently, 
eighty  per  cent  of  your  people  are  to  be  helplessly  left  to 
take  their  chances  of  distress  and  suffering  at  each 
unfavorable  turn  of  the  labor  market,  is  peculiar  to  the 
planet  upon  which  you  live,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
mistaken  and  unwise  conclusions  among  you.  This 
heartless  notion  of  yours  is  plainly  the  inheritance  of  your 
early  cruel  ages.       With  such  a  state  of  things  you  can 


144  'TH^   ^^^^N    FROM    MARS. 

never  have  a  very  high  state  of  civilization.  With  so 
many  of  you  constantly  under  the  vicissitude  of  such 
adverse  changes  of  condition,  there  can  be  no  steady  pro- 
gress of  the  whole,  and  but  little  encouragement  to  thrift ; 
a  lack  of  ambition  must  prevail  in  all  the  higher  purposes 
of  life,  and  a  general  surrender  to  improvidence  and  the 
\dces  which  follow.  For  that  class  which  has  created 
your  wealth,  and  is  constantly  renewing  it,  and  which 
constitutes  so  large  a  portion  of  your  whole  population, 
you  can  show  nothing  of  legislative  effort  in  its  favor 
except  indirectly,  through  some  of  the  purposes  to 
smooth  the  way  and  increase  the  profits  of  capital.  The 
opportunities  of  your  comparatively  small  capitalistic 
class  to  use  for  its  purposes,  in  an  entirely  heartless  way, 
the  larger  body  of  wealth  producers,  have  been  made 
easy  by  natural  conditions  which  would  have  been 
removed  or  corrected  long  ago,  under  a  more  humane  and 
unselfish  administration  of  your  affairs,  and  if  your 
governments  had  not  been  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the 
smaller  class  mentioned.  We  know  of  nothing  more 
heartless  and  cruel  of  the  governing  classes  of  the  Earth, 
than  their  careless  submission  of  its  wage -earners  to  the 
unrestricted  influence  of   competition    for    employment. 


TH:e   MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 45 

under  the  compromising  condition  of  a  necessity  for  bread. 

In  our  philosophy  we  recognize  only  two  honest  ways 
of  accumulating  wealth.  One  is  the  saving  of  wages, 
and  the  other  the  profits  of  capital ;  and  our  legislation 
has  been  chiefly  directed  to  make  the  chances  of  wealth 
by  these  two  methods  as  even  as  possible.  To  perform 
this  service  effectually,  our  greatest  efforts  have  been 
directed  toward  the  labor  interest.  We  feel  ourselves 
justified  in  this,  because  the  welfare  of  about  seven- 
eighths  of  our  people  is  connected  with  this  interest ; 
because  to  the  labor  class  is  entirely  due  the  creation  and 
constant  renewal  of  all  the  wealth  on  our  planet. 
Because,  also,  that  capital  has  natural  advantages  over 
labor,  which  are  first,  its  choice  of  time  and  place  for 
investment ;  second,  its  capacity  to  wait  for  opportunities 
without  the  risk  of  physical  suffering  by  its  owners,  and 
the  leisure  for  thought  and  knowledge  it  affords  to  those 
who  control  it.  Also,  that  capital,  holding  the  position 
of  a  voluntary  employer,  naturally  assumes  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  master,  which  labor,  in  its  constrained 
and  dependent  situation,  is  obliged  to  acknowledge. 

We  have  long  since  considered  these  unequal  relations 
and   tendencies,    and    have  proceeded   to   remedy  them. 


146  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

Our  legislation  in  behalf  of  the  labor  classes  is  the  happi- 
est and  most  satisfactory  of  any  that  we  have.  Without 
it  our  present  civilization  would  be  impossible.  Before 
describing  our  methods,  let  me  direct  your  attention  to 
the  immediate  and  indirect  causes  which  bear  down  upon 
the  labor  classes  of  your  planet. 

Prominent  among  these  is  the  promiscuous  ownership 
of  land.  The  surrendering  of  the  Earth's  surface  to  the 
control  of  individual  ownership  is  one  of  the  most  serious 
mistakes  of  your  civilization.  It  is  not  to  be  mentioned 
alone  as  the  greatest  objection  to  this,  that  the  planet 
upon  which  you  were  born  is  the  natural  inheritance  of 
all  of  you,  from  whose  surface  each  and  every  one  of  you 
is  destined  to  derive  a  sustenance,  and  that  a  monopoly 
of  it  by  the  few  is  as  plain  a  violation  of  justice  as  it 
would  be  to  hold  the  atmosphere  in  private  use  by  sec- 
tions, were  such  a  thing  possible.  But  it  is  chiefly  to  be 
taken  into  consideration,  that  your  land  policy  enables 
the  few  to  dominate  the  many,  suppresses  one  class  and 
elevates  another,  and  insensibly  transfers  an  undue  por- 
tion of  the  earnings  of  labor  into  the  pockets  of  your 
landholding  classes. 

Almost  every  influence  now  at  work  in  the  progress   of 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 47 

your  society  tends  to  throw  money  into  the  hands  of  your 
land  holders,  not  fairly  earned  by  themselves.  While 
the  products  of  labor  are  cheapening  from  day  to  day, 
partly  due  to  increased  skill,  and  the  appliance  of  machin- 
ery in  their  manufacture,  and  partly,  also,  by  the  compe- 
tition of  labor,  owing  to  increase  of  population,  j^et  even 
by  these  very  operations  the  value  of  landed  property 
goes  up. 

You  already  estimate  rent  as  a  considerable  element  of 
cost  in  the  production  of  your  food  materials,  and  you 
are  gradually  approaching  a  period,  when  by  the  growth 
of  population  the  cost  of  food  will  be  very  much  increased 
by  rent  charges.  You  have  all  along  submitted  to  this 
monopoly  of  land  from  causes  plainly  apparent.  In  the 
early  days  of  your  history  all  private  ownership  of  land 
was  acquired  and  held  by  force,  and  it  may  be  safely 
asserted  that  no  title  at  present  exists  in  any  of  your 
older  countries  that  is  not  founded  on  violent  conquest, 
and  that  has  not  been  maintained  by  an  organized  and 
armed  authority,  whose  existence  depends  upon  retaining 
the  system  of  ownership  in  vogue.  It  is  plain  to  see 
that  when  the  demand  of  justice  to  all  shall  be  the  basis 
of  political  action,  and  especially  when  the  cost  of  your 


148  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

food  supply  shall  become  greatly  increased  by  the  charges 
of  rent,  your  present  S3''steni  will  not  be  quietly  endured. 

In  your  own  more  favored  region  of  the  Earth  may  be 
found  temporary  conditions  which  tend  not  only  to  toler- 
ate your  present  laud  ownership  system,  but  to  render  it 
popular.  Your  large  area  of  unoccupied  agricultural- 
surface,  from  which  any  of  your  citizens  are  permitted  at 
small  cost  to  select  a  portion  with  a  title  in  perpetuity, 
destroys  for  the  time  being  the  monopolizing  character  of 
private  ownership ;  and  while  these  governmental  acts  of 
land  distribution  are  the  most  remarkable  concessions  to 
labor  in  human  history,  we  fail  to  discover  anything  in 
the  practice  but  a  temporary  compromise  between  the 
interests  of  capital  and  labor.  As  your  society  progresses 
you  must  arrive  at  the  time  when  your  landless  class  will 
be  as  effectually  excluded  from  the  privilege  of  ownership 
as  they  are  at  present  in  the  older  countries  of  the  world. 

Your  own  country  in  the  newness  of  its  human  posses- 
sion, by  the  lavish  distribution  of  its  territory  into  private 
hands,  has  alleviated  the  burdens  of  labor  elsewhere,  as 
well  as  within  itself.  It  has  effected  this  in  two  ways : 
first  by  withdrawing  from  the  surplus  population  of 
densely  inhabited  districts  abroad,  and  second  by  supply- 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  I49 

ing  from  its  rich  agricultural  lands  a  cheaper  food  supply- 
to  the  older  countries  of  the  Earth  than  they  were  able  to 
furnish  from  their  own  soils.  But  the  most  unreasonable 
among  you  cannot  fail  to  perceive  the  speedy  limit  to 
these  operations  in  the  interests  of  labor,  which  after  all 
must  be  considered  as  merely  effecting  a  truce  between 
that  conflict  of  the  laboring  and  landless  many  and  the 
land-holding  few  which  your  people  will  surely  witness  in 
time.     We  manage  these  things  very  differently  on  Mars. 


I50  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  planet  Mars  is  held  to  be  the  inheritance  of  those 
who  are  born  upon  it.  Admitting  the  self  evident  and 
uncontrovertible  justice  of  this  view,  our  government 
ages  ago  assumed  the  ownership  and  property  control  of 
it  in  trust  for  the  equal  benefit  of  all.  It  has  proceeded 
in  accordance  with  this  view  to  grant  its  uses  for  all  the 
purposes  of  industry  and  pleasure,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
bestow  the  income  of  its  rent  equally  upon  every  living 
inhabitant.  I  can  only  give  you  some  outlines  of  our 
admirable  manner  of  accomplishing  this  purpose. 

Our  agricultural  districts  are  divided  into  small  farms, 
even  in  size,  with  graded  rents  in  accordance  with  the 
richness  of  their  soils,  and  other  conditions.  Sub-letting 
is  not  allowed,  and  a  chief  purpose  in  making  these  allot- 
ments is,  that  the  family  residing  upon  each  farm  will  be 
able  to  perform  all  the  labor  required.  This  is  in  accor- 
dance with  a  principle  which  our  government  carries  out 
in  all  possible  ways,  to  bring  labor  and  capital  into  part- 
nership.    The  cultivator  of  the   soil   goes   on   with    bis 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  151 

improvements,  in  the  assurance  that  they  are  as  secure  to 
him  as  though  his  title  were  perpetual ;  for  in  the  event 
of  a  change  of  tenancy,  which  is  exceedingly  rare,  a  fair 
value  is  returned  to  him  for  all  the  fixed  property  which 
is  the  product  of  his  labor.  It  is  provided  that  there 
shall  be  no  competition  in  the  occupancy,  and  as  the  rent 
is  but  a  nominal  sum,  he  feels  no  insecurity  in  his  posses- 
sion. Agricultural  rents  are  graded  annually,  and  are 
payable  shortly  after  harvest.  They  may  be  either  higher 
or  lower  than  those  of  the  preceding  year,  depending 
entirely  on  profits. 

I^andlordism,  as  it  exists  with  you,  is  unknown  amongst 
us.  The  rapacity  which  under  your  unjust  system  is 
admitted  to  an  ownership  in  which  no  competition  can 
possibly  exist,  and  at  the  same  time  is  permitted  to  avail 
itself  of  that  unlimited  competition  which  the  pressure  of 
public  necessity  induces,  has  neither  foothold  nor  abiding 
place  upon  our  planet.  Under  our  system,  you  will 
perceive  that  any  increase  of  the  profits  of  land  is  met  by 
the  tenant  with  an  increase  of  rent,  and  all  those  natural 
causes  which  advance  the  value  of  landed  property  add  to 
the  government  income,  and  in  that  way  are  shared  by 
all.     Our  government  derives  its  sole  support  from  rent, 


152  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

and  no  other  tax  or  exaction  is  known.  With  a  percent- 
age of  the  profits  from  the  use  of  the  land,  which  is  never 
burdensome  to  the  tenant,  it  has  been  enabled,  and  has 
found  it  to  its  interest,  to  carry  out  agricultural  and  muni- 
cipal improvements  and  enterprises  which  individual 
ownership  would  never  undertake.  It  has  drained  our 
marshes,  and  reclaimed  our  desert  lands  in  the  most 
efficient  manner,  without  the  necessity  of  creating,  as 
with  you,  an  exacting  monopoly,  which  would  claim  of 
industry  its  lion's  share  of  profits  from  the  work. 

The  government  interest  in  our  municipal  progress, 
by  virtue  of  its  holdings,  has  led  it  to  carry  out  in  the 
most  complete  manner  those  sanitary  enterprises  which 
render  city  life  safe  and  enjoyable.  With  its  advantages 
of  sole  ownership  of  city  land,  it  is  enabled  to  enforce 
certain  uniform  rules  of  taste  in  house  and  street  construc- 
tion, which  have  made  our  cities  as  complete  and  harmo- 
nious as  single  works  of  art ;  their  symmetrical  combina- 
tions of  lines  and  curves  as  consistently  meeting  each 
other  as  in  a  separate  architectural  elevation. 

As  I  have  already  hinted  to  you,  a  cultivation  of  the 
beautiful  in  art  and  nature  is  a  part  of  our  religion,  and 
we  indulge  in  the  gratification  of  esthetic  inclinations  as 


Tn:S   MAN    PROM    MASS.  1 53 

one  of  the  greatest  charms  of  life.  Cur  government 
erects  no  buildings  except  public  ones,  and  in  their  con- 
struction and  fittings  is  manifested  that  universal  love  of 
the  grand  and  beautiful  which  everywhere  prevails. 
Your  imagination  is  scarcely  able  to  conceive  the  magnifi- 
cence of  our  temples  of  worship,  and  the  charming 
perspectives  of  our  streets  and  highv/ays.  Yet  even  our 
industrious  attention  to  all  this  pleasing  effect  for  the  eye 
is  held  to  be  a  matter  of  secondary  importance,  when 
compared  with  the  health-giving  measures  and  regula- 
tions which  prevail. 

From  the  ground  rents  alone  of  every  municipality, 
free  and  abundant  water,  light  and  heat  are  supplied  to 
every  inhabitant ;  and  from  the  same  source  of  income  a 
complete  insurance  is  furnished  against  individual  loss 
from  accidents,  and  all  our  dead  are  disposed  of  without 
cost  to  relatives  and  friends.  We  place  no  dead  bodies  in 
the  earth  as  you  do,  considering  such  a  practice  not  only 
barbarous,  but  dangerous  to  the  health  of  the  living. 
On  the  contrarj^  we  extinguish  them  in  a  manner  which 
you  cannot  follow  from  a  lack  of  the  required  advance 
in  chemical  science.  Ever  since  our  discovery  of  the 
elementary  unit  we  have  had  the    power   to   reduce   all 


154  '^'^'^   ^AN    FROM    MARS. 

matter  into  its  original  state,  and  it  serves  us  well,  that 
with  our  chemical  appliances  and  due  solemnity  not  a 
vestige  of  the  dead  is  left  to  be  preserved,  except  their 
memories. 

For  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  to  you  the  marked 
difference  of  effect  on  labor  and  industry  between  private 
and  government  ownership  of  land,  let  us  trace  the  insti- 
tution and  progress  of  one  of  your  cities  in  comparison 
with  one  of  ours.  These  combinations  of  individual 
enterprise  are  to  be  found  upon  your  planet  in  all  stages 
of  growth,  and  may  be  most  conveniently  observed  by 
you  in  this  vicinity  in  their  earlier  periods  of  develop- 
ment. They  are  instituted  mostly  with  you  in  a  fortui- 
tous way,  a  few  individual  interests  forming  the  nucleus 
around  which  capital  and  labor  are  attracted,  under  the 
outlook  of  increased  population  and  trade,  to  supply  and 
create  the  various  products  of  industry  demanded.  The 
whole  land  surface  of  your  new  city,  including  its  pros- 
pective limits,  is  immediately  appropriated  at  a  trifling 
cost,  by  a  single  one  or  a  smaller  number  of  owners, 
under  laws  conveniently  designed  for  their  purposes. 
From  this  time  forward  the  most  extraordinary  exactions 
from  industry  begin.     Every  stroke  of  the  hammer  and 


THK  MAN    FROM    MARS.  I55 

revolution  of  the  fly  wheel  adds  to  the  value  of  these 
possessions,  until  in  a  short  time  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
price  or  rent  of  them,  but  the  ability  of  industry  to  stand 
the  tax. 

During  the  earlier  stage  of  your  city's  growth,  condi- 
tions exist  which  disappear  later.  Labor  is  specially 
favored.  The  demand  for  it  is  as  great  as  the  supply,  if 
not  greater,  and  its  savings  enable  it  to  get  a  share,  by 
small  investments,  in  the  steady  advance  of  land  values. 
Your  new  city,  supposing  it  to  be  a  metropolis,  is  invested 
with  all  the  elements  of  prosperity.  Capital  comes  to  it 
abundantly  from  abroad,  induced  by  the  opportunities  of 
profitable  investment,  and  labor  is  equally  attracted  by 
high  pay.  Population  increases,  together  with  all  the 
enterprises  of  industry,  and  your  land,  conveniently 
divided  into  small  lots,  changes  hands  from  one  purchaser 
to  another,  each  realizing  a  satisfactory  and  handsome 
profit.  The  monopolizing  influences  of  land  ownership 
are  not  generally  felt,  because  of  the  large  and  unoccu- 
pied area  of  surface,  and  the  facility  to  all  in  the  acquire- 
ment of  titles.  Labor  enjoys  an  era  of  remarkable 
prosperity  outside  as  well  as  within  the  limits  of  your 
city.      Your  government   has  donated  to  it  millions  of 


156  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

acres  of  fertile  agricultural  lands,  whose  surface,  for  the 
most  part,  requires  no  great  outlay  of  capital  to  fit  it  for 
the  uses  of  husbandry ;  and  altogether,  the  general 
contentment  and  thrift  indicate  that  all  material  interests 
are  equally  equipped  and  uniformly  successful  in  the 
struggle  of  life.  lyabor  goes  cheerfully  to  its  daily  toil, 
and  returns  to  its  abundant  board  with  a  hope  and  ambi- 
tion it  has  seldom  known  before.  All  human  purposes 
appear  in  a  flourishing  state,  except,  it  may  incidentally 
be  observed,  that  your  religion  at  this  period  droops, 
without  its  usual  attention  and  support. 

You  are  now,  we  shall  suppose,  at  the  end  of  the 
second  decade  in  the  history  of  your  city,  and  many 
changes  are  observable,  due  to  the  progress  of  your 
society  and  civilization.  Your  metropolis  may  contain 
now  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants. 
The  market  value  of  its  laud  surface,  about  three  miles 
square,  has  increased,  from  the  government  price  at 
which  it  was  purchased  by  the  single  or  half  dozen 
purchasers,  from  about  seven  thousand  to  three  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  whole  value  of  the 
products  of  industry  upon  it  may  be  reasonably  estimated 
at   a   like   sum.      With   the   privileges   and  partnership 


the;  man  from  mars.  157 

which  labor  has  enjoyed  in  this  great  increase  of  values, 
it  is  so  far  quiet  and  satisfied;  but  unfortunately  the 
inevitable  outcome  is  not  so  promising  to  it.  The  evil 
effects  of  your  private  ownership  become  more  and  more 
apparent  as  your  city  advances,  and  when,  under  the 
promptings  of  human  greed  and  selfishness,  your  land- 
lords have  fairly  commenced  their  raid  upon  the  indus- 
tries of  the  city.  They  now  exact  from  you  a  tax  in  the 
form  of  land  rent  alone  which  consumes  yearly  the 
twentieth  part  of  all  the  products  of  industry  upon  their 
possessions.  This  enormous  tax  is  exacted  without  the 
return  of  any  service  whatever  except  the  privilege  of  a 
dwelling  place. 

Your  inhabitants  are  called  upon  also  to  provide  for  the 
necessities  of  government,  and  an  additional  tax  is  levied 
therefor,  which  takes  from  the  profits  of  labor  and  capital 
an  amount  equal  to  the  tenth  part  of  all  their  savings. 
Because  the  privilege  of  becoming  a  land  owner  is  equal 
to  all,  and  is  the  hope  of  most  of  you,  you  have  permitted 
the  transformation  of  this  gift  of  nature  into  a  monopoly, 
the  most  arbitrary  and  consuming  that  can  be  conceived. 

This  gift  of  nature,  however,  is  not  the  only  one 
diverted  from  its  equitable  distribution,  and  permitted  to 


158  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

become  the  material  of  unrighteous  exaction.  The 
process  of  the  water,  heat,  and  light  supply,  so  manifestly 
among  the  duties  of  your  government  to  institute  and 
superintend,  is  given,  like  your  land,  to  the  management 
and  control  of  private  individuals ;  thus  converting  these 
indispensable  elements  of  life  and  comfort  into  money 
getters  for  wealth,  and  subtracting  to  an  unnecessary 
degree  from  the  profits  of  industry  and  the  savings  of 
labor. 

We  shall  now  suppose  that  your  city  has  arrived  at  the 
termination  of  its  fourth  decade.  Its  population  has 
increased  two-fold,  and  its  land  value  has  quadrupled  ; 
but  it  is  noticeable  that  your  products  of  industy  have 
not  kept  pace  in  their  value  with  this  enormous  apprecia- 
tion, and  your  ground  rents  alone  now  consume  every 
ten  years  the  whole  cost  of  all  buildings  and  their 
contents.  In  other  words,  every  vestige  of  the  accumu- 
lated labor  of  your  city  goes  into  the  pockets  of  its  land- 
lords every  ten  years.  Change  now  becomes  apparent 
in  social  life.  Competition  has  now  reduced  the  wages 
of  labor,  and  it  has  very  nearly  lost  its  ability  to  share  in 
some  of  the  minor  operations  of  capital.  The  struggles 
of   increasing   numbers,     precisely    the    same    influence 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  159 

which  has  depressed  wages,  have  advanced  land,  Labor 
has  lost  much  of  its  old  buoyancy  and  hopefulness. 
While  raiment  and  food,  the  products  of  its  own  industry, 
have  fallen  in  price,  with  a  tendency  to  make  up  for  its 
reduced  income,  every  other  one  of  its  living  expenses  is 
greatly  increased.  Allowing  it  its  proper  place  with 
matrimonial  ambitions  and  hopes,  the  remarkable  propor- 
tion of  one  fourth  of  its  hard-earned  wages  is  demanded 
of  it  in  land  rent  alone,  for  a  dwelling  spot  in  the  midst 
of  a  region  which  nothing  else  but  its  own  energies  have 
produced  from  a  wilderness.  Ever^^  single  one  of  the 
bounties  of  nature,  except  the  air  and  sunshine,  are  inac- 
cessible without  the  charges  of  an  intercepting  medium. 
The  heat,  and  light-giving  materials  of  the  earth,  together 
with  water,  the  most  useful  and  abundant  of  all,  are 
served  out  to  it  burdened  with  all  the  costs  and  profits 
levied  by  an  organized  and  irresponsible  few. 

The  capital  engaged  in  your  industries  adjusts  itself  to 
all  these  burdens,  and  is  quiet  under  them,  because  it  can 
readily  reimburse  itself  by  transferring  all  expenses  and 
costs  to  prices.  There  is  no  such  escape  for  labor,  which 
not  only  pays  these  monopoly  exactions  directly,  but  as  a 
consumer  is  obliged  by  an  indirect  method  to  foot  a  large 


l6o  THS   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

share  of  these  bills  for  capital.  Capital  remains  contented 
under  these  extraordinary  demands  for  another  reason. 
All  monopoly  enterprises,  and  especially  that  one  of  land, 
furnish  the  safest  and  most  profitable  reservoirs  of  invest- 
ment for  its  surplus  earnings,  and  when  it  does  not 
already  participate  it  looks  forward  to  a  partnership  in 
their  profits. 

You  can  readily  understand,  then,  why  the  toilers  of 
5''0ur  city,  at  this  period  of  its  historj'-,  should  show  signs 
of  sinking  back  into  that  dependent  condition  which 
characterizes  them  elsewhere  upon  your  planet.  A  few 
among  them,  with  great  fortitude  of  restraint  and  large 
acquisitiveness,  manage  to  lay  by  some  of  their  earnings, 
but  the  margin  between  income  and  expense  is  so  narrow 
that  such  a  practice  is  not  general.  So  that  from  the  dis- 
abling vicissitudes  of  life,  and  a  carelessness  of  habit 
induced  by  lack  of  ambition,  comes  that  distressful  state 
of  existence,  unknown  on  our  planet,  but  common  enough 
on  yours,  where  a  human  being,  with  abundant  stores  of 
food  and  raiment  surrounding  him,  suffers  for  enough  of 
them  to  supply  his  moderate  wants.  Poverty',  which 
before  had  been  only  exceptional  and  sporadic,  assumes 
now  the  proportions  of  a  numerous  class  among  j'^ou,  and 


THIS   MAN    FROM    MARS.  l6l 

out  of  which,  by  a  lack  of  the  opportunities  of  knowl- 
edge, crime  as  naturally  appears  as  weeds  in  a  neglected 
husbandry. 

Another  and  significant  change  now  becomes  apparent 
in  your  social  state.  During  the  first  stages  of  your  city's 
existence,  there  had  been  no  money  invested  except  as 
capital.  Every  dollar  laid  out  in  that  way  had  been 
shared  by  labor.  Any  increase  in  the  volume  of  capital 
brings  a  corresponding  prosperity  to  those  who  toil ;  but 
the  accumulations  from  the  profits  of  capital  have  not 
generally  been  added  to  it,  and  in  many  cases  the  capital 
itself  has  been  led  away  into  the  many  profitable  monopoly 
enterprises  which  abound.  These  now  flourish  as  they 
never  did  before.  Increase  of  population  and  trade  has 
stimulated  the  various  industries  to  increased  supplies, 
but  the  prices  of  all  commodities  instead  of  being  raised 
are  lowered.  The  free  and  open  competition  within  the 
precincts  of  capital  and  labor  has  effected  this ;  not  greatly 
to  the  detriment  of  either,  because  the  producer  in  one 
department  of  industry  is  a  consumer  in  many  of  the 
others,  and  capital  has  increased  its  volume  of  business  to 
make  up  for  smaller  profits.  But  you  have  within  the 
borders  of  your  city  those   money-making   contrivances 


t62  the  man  from  mars. 

peculiar  to  j^our  planet,  wherein  the  natural  effect  of 
competition  is  entirely  reversed,  and  where  the  universal 
law  of  supply  and  demand  is  completely  abrogated.  The 
worst  and  most  disastrous  of  these  is  your  system  of  land 
ownership. 

Into  this,  and  the  other  of  your  monopolies,  capital 
pours  its  surplus,  and  finally  retires  to  them  with  its 
accumulations,  deserting  its  partnership  with  labor,  and 
appearing  on  the  scene  in  the  new  form  of  wealth.  From 
a  few  instances,  so  rare  as  ta  be  conspicuous,  your  holders 
of  large  money  accumulations  become  now  a  numerous 
and  influential  class.  While  your  society  at  one  end  has 
been  sinking  into  poverty,  it  blooms  at  the  other  with 
signs  of  unusual  thrift.  With  an  increase  of  luxury  on 
one  hand,  and  of  want  on  the  other,  your  city  is  now 
approaching  the  normal  state,  A  few  decades  more  it 
will  have  established  within  itself  those  relations  between 
wealth,  capital,  and  labor  which  are  as  inevitably  the  out- 
come of  your  land  ownership  system,  as  drouth  and 
famine  arfe  the  outcome  of  a  lack  of  moisture  in  the  soil. 

We  shall  say  now  that  yotir  city  contains  a  half  million 
of  inhabitants.  Its  surface  is  not  extended  in  proportion 
v/ith  its  increase  in  population,  the  cost  of  space  inducing 


THK  MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 63 

a  greater  crowding  of  houses  and  people.  Your  labor 
products,  and  the  land  upon  which  they  rest,  have  been 
so  constantly  receding  from  each  other  in  values,  that 
now,  with  all  the  forced  economy  of  space,  your  piles  of 
goods,  merchandise,  and  houses,  if  sold  at  their  market 
value,  would  not  furnish  more  than  a  quarter  enough  of 
money  to  purchase  the  ground  beneath  them.  This 
enormous  increase  in  the  value  of  your  city  land  is  mostly 
the  result  of  the  opportunities  its  owners  enjoy  to  prey 
upon  the  industries,  and  at  this  stage  the  following  very 
remarkable  conditions  may  be  observed :  While  the 
city's  capital,  properly  so  called,  is  about  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  and  the  number  of  its  workers  in 
industrial  pursuits  about  one  hundred  thousand,  the 
aggregate  earnings  of  both  labor  and  capital  combined  have 
one  quarter  of  the  whole  swept  away  by  the  demands  of 
your  landlords,  estimating  ground  rent  alone.  And  this 
enormous  exaction,  remember,  is  imposed  without  ren- 
dering any  service  in  return.  None  of  your  economists 
v.'ill  deny  that  this  large  drain  does  not  come  directly  from 
the  industries  of  your  people,  and  its  exhausting  effects 
are  daily  seen  in  the  gradually  hardening  lines  in  the  lives 
of  those  who  toil.     In  an  early  period,  twenty  persons  in 


1 64  THE   MAN   PROM   MARS. 

every  hundred  of  your  workers  owned  a  portion  of  your 
city's  surface.  Now  only  four  per  cent  are  land  owners, 
and  within  a  few  decades  not  more  than  five  in  a  thousand 
will  dwell  or  pursue  their  avocations  without  the  virtual 
consent  of  some  superintending  ground  owner,  upon 
whose  mercy  in  abstaining  from  ejectment  or  extortion 
they  will  remain  in  constant  uncertainty. 

The  ownership  of  your  city  lots  will  now  have  gone 
almost  exclusively  into  the  hands  of  your  leisure  class ; 
and  the  vast  sums  of  money  drawn  monthly  for  rent, 
instead  of  being,  as  formerly,  partly  returned  as  capital, 
to  assist  labor  in  the  various  industrial  enterprises  is  now 
either  dissipated  in  luxur>%  expended  in  new  possessions, 
or  invested  in  some  of  the  many  monopoly  undertakings 
of  the  day.      The  effects  of  this  unjust  burden  are  daily 
apparent.      It  reduces  the  possible  savings  of  labor  and 
the  accumulations  of  industry  to  such  a  minimum  that 
success  in  these  is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.     It 
is  mostly  because   of   this   monopoly  of  land   that   hfe 
among  your  masses  is  a  continuous  and   uninterrupted 
struggle;   and   to  this   more   than    all   else  is   due   that 
unequal  distribution   of  wealth  which  affords  only  the 
few  that  cultivation  and  knowledge  which  elevates  them, 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 65 

and  that  dooms  the  many  to  an  unceasing  wear  of  nerve 
and  muscle  to  sustain  themselves. 

You  cannot  fail  to  have  observed,  as  one  of  the  most 
promising  signs  of  your  destiny,  that  wherever  humanity 
in  the  midst  of  civilization  is  freest  from  the  cares  of  sus- 
tenance supply,  it  inclines  to  devote  its  leisure  to  a  culti- 
vation of  the  mind.  The  crudeness  and  vulgarity  of 
some,  and  the  refinement  of  others,  are  entirely  due  to 
difference  in  opportunities  of  development,  and  between 
these  two  there  must  always  exist  a  great  repulsion. 
What  good  can  you  therefore  expect  of  mankind  as  a 
v/hole,  so  long  as  by  your  methods  a  few  only  are  vouch- 
safed the  opportunities  for  knowledge  ? 

The  forces  at  work  within  your  society  have  now,  we 
we  will  say,  brought  up  your  population  and  general  con- 
ditions to  the  standard  of  those  which  may  be  found  in 
the  older  portions  of  the  Earth,  Your  poverty  is  more 
intense  and  widespread,  with  its  corresponding  increase  in 
crime,  while  your  wealth  has  become  more  munificent  and 
ostentatious.  Impelled  by  the  necessities  of  life  and  a 
brave  emulation,  all  your  industries  will  be  found  in  the 
highest  strain  of  action.  The  accumulated  products  of 
labor  and  its  multiplied  activity  have  given  to  you  a  sem- 


1 66  THE   MAN    PROM   MARS. 

blance  of  prosperity  and  success.  But  while  in  the  course 
of  your  progress  you  have  created  new  necessities  and 
wants,  you  have  made  no  just  provision  by  which  they 
could  be,  as  near  as  possible,  equally  shared ;  and  as  a 
consequence  the  apparent  as  well  as  the  silent  and  con- 
cealed miseries  of  human  life  were  never  greater. 

There  is  to  be  observed  now  a  marked  increase  in  the 
spread  and  influence  of  your  religion.  As  the  hope  of 
success  in  life  becomes  lessoned,  and  as  the  heartaches 
and  distresses  increase  by  your  uneven  struggles,  the 
suffering  and  disappointed  masses  turn  naturally  to 
another  existence  for  what  has  been  denied  them  in  this  ; 
and  it  can  be  said  of  all  your  religious  theories,  that  their 
contrivances  to  make  you  suffer  uncomplainingly  the  out- 
rages of  authority  are  the  best  that  could  have  been 
devised.  The  few  among  you  enjoying  the  bounties  of 
life,  surrounded  by  that  want  and  privation  whose  voices 
they  cannot  escape,  and  whose  strong  arms  they  cannot 
fail  to  observe,  turn  instinctively  to  your  religious  doctrines 
with  a  sense  of  safety  and  protection.  The  few  favored 
ones,  looking  over  the  vast  multitude  of  their  less  fortun- 
ate brothers,  are  conscious  that  the  superabundance  they 
enjoy  has  been  doubtfully  acquired,  and  they  are  quick  to 


the;  man  from  mars.  167 

embrace  that  convenient  justification,  which  ascribes  the 
greater  ills  and  burdens  of  the  many  to  a  preconceived 
and  unalterable  arrangement  of  the  divine  will. 


1 68  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Before  bringing  into  comparison  one  of  our  cities  it 
will  be  necessary  to  explain  to  you  some  of  the  processes 
which  have  rendered  our  present  civilization  possible. 
You  already  have  a  hint,  from  what  I  have  said,  of  the 
very  striking  difference  between  the  society  of  Mars  and 
that  of  the  Earth,  in  their  handling  of  labor  interests. 
While  with  your  careless  and  indifferent  treatment,  labor 
remains  degraded,  we  have  raised  it  to  a  point  of  honor. 
We  have  arrived  at  our  methods  of  its  treatment  by  that 
philosophical  induction  which  has  interpreted  to  us  the 
many  reliable  and  unerring  decrees  of  the  divine  will. 
Nature,  upon  whom  we  depend  for  all  we  know  of  the 
supreme  wishes,  has  furnished  indubitable  signs  that  physi- 
cal diligence  is  a  saving  and  wholesome  quality,  insepar- 
able from  intelligence,  in  its  extended  sense  as  we  know  it, 
upon  which  the  very  existence  of  all  material  things  rests. 
But  even  the  activities  of  nature  are  not  more  indispensa- 
ble to  the  firmness  of  the  Earth,  than  individual  mental 
and  physical  energy  is  to  the  well-being  and  progress  of 


THK   MAN    FROM    MARS.  169 

your  society.  Since  one  of  these  energies  is  as  useful  as 
the  other  in  the  economy  of  the  world,  we  can  conceive 
no  reason  why  you  should  allow  one  of  them  to  dominate 
the  other;  nor  how  you  can  justify  yourselves  in  bestow- 
ing upon  one  all  the  honors  and  emoluments,  while  to  the 
other  you  pursue  a  course  denying  opportunities,  and  in 
all  ways  bringing  upon  it  an  inferior  social  scale. 

We  met  these  natural  tendencies  ages  ago,  by  a  deter- 
mination to  equalize,  as  far  as  possible,  the  burdens  of  life 
among  all  classes,  and  to  this  end  we  have  chiefly  directed 
our  effbrts  to  sustain  the  interests  of  those  who,  by  a 
struggle  for  the  necessities  of  life,  are  obliged   to   toil. 
Some  very  remarkable  results  have  followed.     We  have 
achieved  that  degree  of  justice  where  the  skillful  artisan, 
by  virtue  of  his  manual  cunning  alone,  can  acquire  a 
certain  elevation  in  our  society,  and  whose  occupation  is 
not  subordinated  by  any  other  on  our  planet.     We  have 
a  very  numerous  class  amongst  us,  known  by  the  best 
interpretation  of  your  language  as  officers  of  industry, 
who  secure  truer  and  more  lasting  honor  than  your  mili- 
tary heroes.     Our  admiration  of  them  arises  from  the  fact 
that  they  assist  to  build  up  and  restore  the  waste  of  those 
industrial  products  which  sustain  our  lives.     The  official 


170  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

grades  among  these  compare  somewhat  with  your  military- 
system.  Their  insignia  of  office  is  permanently  worn  on 
their  dress,  and  to  achieve  distinction  in  this  line  is  the 
hope  of  all,  since  without  having  worn  the  badge  of  office 
in  some  of  these  grades,  social  or  political  distinction  is 
difficult.  By  methods,  long  ago  in  vogue,  we  have  united 
our  intellectual  and  manual  training  so  that  there  should 
be  no  social  separation  between  them.  But  while  equal 
distinction  awaits  the  skillful  pursuit  of  either  path,  the 
highest  honors  are  achieved  by  those  who  excel  in  both. 
Consequently  our  youth,  encouraged  by  their  parents  and 
teachers,  become  emulous  of  the  qualities  of  physical 
endurance  attached  to  labor,  and  serve  their  terms  among 
the  toilers  with  a  will  that  nothing  but  a  high  ambition 
could  create.  This  greater  respect  and  consideration  for 
physical  industry  than  yours  would  have  been  impossible, 
were  it  not  that  we  have  avoided  the  various  causes  which 
either  suppress  or  degrade  it.  In  the  first  place,  we  have 
decreed  that  it  shall  receive  a  fair  share  of  its  earnings. 
Chiefly  in  furtherance  of  this,  we  have  ordained  that  no 
individual  holder  of  land  shall  rob  it  by  taking  to  himself 
that  appreciation  in  values  which  its  diligence  produces. 
To  this  end  also  we  have  provided  that  wealtb  and  capital 


THK  MAN    FROM    MARS.  I7I 

shall  not  bear  down  upon  it  in  the  various  monopoly- 
exactions  common  with  you.  But  a  measure  of  justice, 
scarcely  less  eflfectual  than  these  to  elevate  and  sustain 
labor,  is  our  governmental  system  of  fixing  its  rates  of 
wages. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  not  be  hard  for  you  to 
believe  that  a  working  man  holds  a  very  different  position 
in  society  with  us  than  with  you.  Upon  the  Earth, 
driven  by  the  necessities  of  life,  and  a  cruel  and  unre- 
strained competition,  he  is  obliged  to  forego  nearly  all 
those  opportunities  which  refine  and  elevate  the  mind. 
He  has  little  of  leisure,  without  the  depression  of  muscular 
fatigue.  His  habiliments  are  the  badges  of  inferiority  in 
your  social  scale,  and  he  trudges  along  on  his  tiresome, 
hopeless  journey,  bearing  his  condition  as  one  under  the 
prohibition  of  better  things  by  an  inexorable  fate.  No 
competency  rewards  his  unremitting  toil,  though  with  the 
skill  of  his  hands  he  is  building  the  wealth  of  the  world. 
To  the  sordid  and  cunning  comes  fortune  in  possessions 
and  estates ;  while  to  him  comes  only  the  privilege  to 
dwell  in  another's  house,  and  to  partake  of  that  fare 
whose  chief  quality  shall  be  its  capacity  to  restore  the 
wasting  energies  of  his  body. 


172  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

With  US  the  pursuit  of  manual  labor  is  attended  with 
better  conditions.  By  securing  to  industry  its  rightful 
rewards,  it  has  been  adopted  by  choice  instead  of  com- 
pulsion, as  the  best  way  to  gain  independence.  Having 
no  road  to  wealth,  except  through  the  sterling  qualities 
of  industry  and  prudence,  industry  and  probity  are  the 
indispensable  qualities  which  lead  to  the  upper  stratum  of 
our  society.  Thus,  you  will  perceive,  the  natural  laws 
of  progression  and  development  are  encouraged  to  work 
out  their  beneficial  results  in  the  life  of  every  individual. 

Since,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  all  are  surrounded 
with  the  living  rewards  of  goodness,  we  have  no  need  of 
sermons.  We  know  no  gilded  vice.  It  bears  no  fruits 
with  us  but  destruction.  You  preach  against  it  and 
reward  it  in  the  same  breath.  You  denounce  it  in  empty 
words,  and  at  the  next  moment  honor  it  with  a  bow. 
You  sanction  the  wholesale  injury  which  your  system 
inflicts  upon  each  one,  hoping  in  the  scramble  to  pocket 
the  losses  of  others.  The  most  desirable  condition  of  life 
with  you  is  that  in  which  the  attainment  of  wealth  shall 
furnish  personal  gratification,  the  accomplishment  of 
which,  in  most  cases,  is  through  a  line  of  public  and 
private  wrongs.     The  better  conditions  of  life  with  us  are 


THE   MAN    FROM    MARS.  I73 

acquired  in  the  fertilization  of  innumerable  schemes  for 
the  common  welfare. 

You  are  not  to  make  the  mistake  by  supposing  that  our 
society  has  arrived  at  the  dead  level  of  equality.  We 
have  no  castes,  as  you  have,  holding  apart  from  each 
other  with  marked  distinctions  of  wealth.  But  we  have 
social  grades,  as  you  have,  with  the  great  difference  that 
each  one  enjoys  unenvied  the  pleasures  within  reach  ;  not 
the  least  of  which  is  to  share  the  cares  as  well  as  the 
delights  of  life  with  each  other.  The  feeling  of  contempt 
for  one  another  is  entirely  unknown  among  the  people  of 
Mars.  We  have  provided  that  there  shall  be  no  unlet- 
tered and  vulgar  substratum  in  our  society  to  pity  or 
condemn,  as  you  have.  The  even  justice  of  our  system 
has  bestowed  upon  all  equal  opportunities  of  knowledge 
and  cultivation.  As  a  result,  there  is  no  individual  living 
upon  our  planet  who  is  superior  to  another,  except  by  a 
more  assiduous  exercise  of  mental  or  physical  gifts,  or  a 
higher  cultivation  of  his  spiritual  nature. 

A  marked  indication  of  our  advanced  social  develop- 
ment is,  that  we  utterlj'  refuse  the  performance  of  any  act 
which  is  an  injury,  even  in  a  remote  degree,  to  our  fellows  ; 
while  in  the  intense  selfishness  of  your  present  state,  j'ou 


174  'J^HE   M(AN    FROM    MARS. 

are  constantly  sacrificing  each  other's  interests.  With 
sentiments  like  these  prevailing,  it  is  easy  for  you  to 
understand  why  we  have  no  class  among  us  perpetually 
under  less  favored  conditions  than  another  class,  and  why, 
acting  under  the  great  lesson  of  nature  which  has  sent  us 
all  into  life  upon  an  equality,  we  have  ordained  in  all 
possible  ways  that  the  journey  thereafter  shall  be  fair  and 
equal  to  all. 

It  is  not  possible  for  you  to  thoroughly  understand  or 
appreciate  what  I  am  to  lay  before  you,  in  a  description  of 
our  society  in  municipal  life,  without  a  further  knowledge 
of  some  of  our  methods.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
these,  is  the  perfection  which  we  have  brought  to  our 
science  of  statistics,  and  the  indispensable  service  it  is 
made  to  perform  in  our  political  economy.  This  branch 
of  science  is  pursued  by  us  as  the  most  serviceable  and 
practical  of  all.  "We  learn  from  it  in  a  positive  way  many 
truths  which  your  economists  fail  to  reach,  and  we  have 
discovered  by  it  many  errors  which  have  existed  as  the 
result  of  sophistical  reasoning.  We  use  it  as  a  rule  and 
square  to  measure  the  speculations  of  philosophy,  as  well 
as  an  every-day  guide  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life.  Its 
better  value  for  us  lies  in  the  fact  that  our  conclusions 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  175 

from  it  are  adduced  out  of  the  records  of  centuries.  It  is 
to  social  science  what  analysis  is  to  chemistry.  It  is  only 
by  a  systematic  and  orderly  record  of  the  occurrences  of 
nature,  and  the  changes  and  events  of  society,  that  we 
have  arrived  at  the  many  profound  truths  so  deeply 
concerning  our  lives.  By  it  we  have  discovered  how 
astonishingly  nature  holds,  concealed  from  common  eyes, 
so  many  of  her  processes,  coquetting  with  us,  as  it  were, 
in  withholding  her  greatest  favors  without  prolonged  and 
incessant  interrogation.  But  although  our  store  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  has  been  increased  by  these  statistical 
labors,  we  hold  them  of  no  less  importance  in  managing 
the  practical  affairs  of  life. 

Our  bureau  of  statistics  is  without  question  the  most 
valuable  department  of  our  government.  It  has  been 
brought  to  its  perfected  condition  by  centuries  of  practice 
and  improvement,  and  upon  it  rests,  in  a  great  measure, 
the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  our  people.  By  it,  mainly, 
we  are  enabled  to  save  our  population  from  the  distresses 
of  overproduction,  and  the  chance  occurrences  of  uneven 
labor  demand.  Your  experience  has  shown  you  that  in 
times  of  depression  the  causes  were  plainly  apparent. 
We  have  merely  arranged  to  anticipate  these  causes,  to 


176  THE   MAN   FROM    MARS. 

sound  the  general  alarm,  and  to  forestall  them.  Outside 
of  the  defects  of  your  currency,  and  your  speculation, 
which  are  most  prolific  sources  of  industrial  disaster, 
comes  that  blind  over-production,  entirely  undirected  bj^ 
any  reliable  or  authoritative  knowledge  of  the  existing 
capacity  to  consume.  You  are  having  at  times  a  large 
amount  of  misdirected  labor  in  the  form  of  products  slow 
of  sale  ;  and  for  the  time  being  a  suppl}-,  so  much  in 
excess  of  demand,  does  not  return  a  full  equivalent  for 
the  labor  invested.  These  frequent  errors  of  production 
depress  wages,  and  are  altogether  more  calamitous  to  labor 
than  to  capital ;  because  labor  is  variously  skilled,  and 
cannot  readily  transplant  itself  from  one  department  of 
production  to  another,  and  is  obliged,  under  the  condi- 
tions, either  to  accept  reduced  wages  or  to  remain  idle. 
Capital  does  not  suffer  as  labor  does  in  these  constantly 
occurring  over-supplies.  On  the  other  hand,  it  finds  its 
opportunity,  either  by  waiting  from  a  low  to  a  high 
market  for  its  returns,  or  by  changing  its  field  of  invest- 
ment. In  these  frequent  partial  or  complete  suspensions 
in  the  production  of  over-supplied  commodities,  labor  is 
therefore  the  chief  sufferer. 

We   have   nearly   a   complete   remedy  for  this  in  our 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  1 77 

system  of  statistics.  Our  planet  in  all  its  habitable  parts 
is  divided  into  districts,  in  each  of  which  is  kept  an 
accurate  and  systematic  record  of  all  available  labor,  as 
well  as  an  account  of  its  different  classes,  with  the  sepa- 
rate capacity  of  each  for  production.  In  connection 
therewith  is  also  kept  an  account  of  all  products  turned 
out.  The  information  furnished  in  this  way  determines 
the  surplus  or  deficiency  of  all  commodities  produced. 
We  are  enabled  thereby  to  know,  almost  at  a  glance, 
the  drift  of  all  labor  energies,  and  to  direct  them  safely 
from  any  great  redundancy  of  supply.  When  engaged 
in  the  producion  of  food  supplies,  where  nature  becomes 
of  necessity  a  party  to  this  great  co-operative  arrange- 
ment, we  have  devised  a  method  that  saves  those  who 
toil  from  the  embarrassment  and  the  frequent  distress  of 
an  intermittent  cost  of  living.  We  had  observed  that  the 
tendency  of  cheap  food  to  lower  the  wages  of  labor,  and 
of  dear  food  to  raise  them,  was  not  equal,  wages  being 
much  more  easily  lowered  than  raised  under  this  natural 
influence.  Our  government  has  undertaken  therefore  to 
establish  a  fair  and  equitable  adjustment  between  the  cost 
of  living  and  wage  rates,  to  be  modified  when  occasion 
requires. 


178  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

You  are  not  to  expect  me  to  go  into  detail  in  these 
matters;  but  as  it  may  seem  impracticable  to  you,  how 
any  arbitrary  rate  of  wages  may  be  made  to  rule  fairly 
among  so  many  different  people,  I  will  give  you  some 
account  of  our  system  of  grading  labor,  by  which  this 
diflSculty  is  overcome.  We  have  formed  out  of  the  three 
qualities  of  skii,l,,  strength  and  activity  a  basis  upon 
which  to  reckon  the  value  of  all  individual  labor.  Each 
of  these  is  divided  into  three  grades,  and  the  highest 
valued  workman  is  he  who  stands  first  in  all.  The  first 
grade  in  skill  is  considered  equal  to  both  the  first  and 
second  grades  of  strength  and  activity  in  estimating 
wages;  and  there  is  no  first  grade  of  skill  allowed,  except 
in  those  industrial  operations  requiring  much  manual 
training. 

The  workman  begins  his  career  usually  in  the  lowest 
grades  of  each,  although  at  times  strength  and  activity 
are  raised  one  grade  at  the  beginning.  The  wages  of  all 
labor  are  uniformly  established  by  the  government,  in 
accordance  with  the  standing  of  the  individual  and  the 
certificate  he  holds,  according  him  his  status  under  this 
method  of  estimating  his  ability.  From  middle  life  to 
old   age   changes   usually   occur  in   his   grade,  and   his 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  I79 

apportionment  of  wages  is  consequently  modified;  but  so 
long  as  he  retains  his  skill  it  goes  far  to  keep  up  the 
allotment  of  fair  wages  against  the  loss  of  strength  and 
activity. 

This  is  merely  an  outline  of  our  system.  Its  import- 
ance will  be  understood,  when  you  consider  that  by  it  we 
have  established  a  uniform  rate  of  wages  for  all,  and  have 
saved  our  workmen  from  helplessly  submitting  themselves 
to  the  natural  competition  of  dependent  numbers,  and  to 
the  exacting  patronage  of  a  selfish  and  independent  few. 
Although  we  have  achieved  this  desideratum  of  uniform 
wages  we  are  not  unaware  of  the  economic  impossibility 
of  rendering  them  constant,  and  we  have  accordingly 
arranged  that  the  rate  shall  be  changed  to  correspond 
with  the  varying  cost  of  living.  Each  year  therefore, 
after  the  gathering  of  our  harvests,  our  statistical  bureau 
makes  a  report  of  food  supply ;  when  any  change,  if  nec- 
essary, is  made  in  the  rate  of  wages  for  the  ensuing  year, 
thereby  determining  that  labor  shall  enjoy  a  fair  share  of 
the  wealth  which  it  produces. 

Outside  of  the  handicraft  of  the  workmen,  we  have 
established  a  scale  for  estimating  a  just  rate  of  pay  for  all 
employees  in  professional  and  business  pursuits.      This 


I  So  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

arrangement  is  based  upon  the  qualities  of  talent, 
INTELLIGENCE  and  capability.  Each  one  of  these  is 
divided  into  three  grades,  and  whoever  stands  first  in  all 
of  them  is  entitled,  of  course,  to  the  highest  pay  for  his 
services.  Usually,  however,  these  high  qualifications 
secure  a  reward  beyond  the  scale.  This  system  of  reward- 
ing labor  has  a  far-reaching  efiect  in  our  political  economy, 
and  is  a  complete  uniformity  with  the  general  tendancy  of 
our  efforts  to  promote  steady  values.  The  most  import- 
ant element  of  cost  in  all  commodities  ofiered  for  sale  is 
labor,  and  that  can  never  be  cheapened.  We  have  not  a 
single  product  of  industry  in  our  list  which  represents  in 
its  labor  cost,  as  many  of  yours  do,  the  underpain,  gaunt 
and  hopeless  toil  of  some  fellow  creature  struggling  for 
the  scanty  means  to  live. 

Owing  to  our  many  concessions  physical  industry  has 
been  curtailed  of  that  excessively  wearisome  and  exhaust- 
ing character  known  to  you.  Without  the  oppressions 
which  bear  down  upon  it  on  your  planet,  its  pursuit 
never  reaches  that  forced  extremity  which  brings  the  bent 
form  and  care-worn  face. 

A  considerate  custom  has  fixed  our  period  of  daily 
labor  at  six  hours ;   one-half  of  which,  under  the  equit- 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  l8l 

able  adjustment  of  our  wage  rates,  affords  sufiicieut  pay, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  to  furnish  a  liberal  enjoy- 
ment of  life.  Under  our  system  three  hours  of  work 
each  day  affords  a  share  of  wealth  somewhat  in  excess  of 
the  share  usually  obtained  by  the  workmen  of  the  Earth 
for  their  average  of  ten  hours'  labor.  Our  industrial 
force  has,  therefore,  a  facility  of  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion, without  distressful  results,  which  yours  does  not 
possess.  No  serious  changes  are  wrought  with  us  by  a 
reduction  of  working  force  to  half  time,  and  consequent 
half  pay  ;  while  more  or  less  pinching  and  misery  are  sure 
to  follow  such  an  occurrence  with  5''ou. 

From  these  careful  attentions  to  the  interests  of  labor, 
we  have  brought  it  into  repute  as  one  of  the  most  honor- 
able as  well  as  the  most  profitable  pursuits  of  life.  I  have 
endeavored  to  show  you  some  of  the  ways  by  which  this 
grand  purpose  has  been  attained.  I  must  not,  however, 
omit  to  remind  you,  that  as  our  government  takes  upon 
itself  to  perform  innumerable  enterprises,  which  on  the 
Earth  are  left  to  individuals  and  organizations  of  men,  its 
direct  dealings  with  those  who  toil  are  more  intimate  and 
extensive  than  yours.  It  is  better  enabled  thereby  to 
carr}^  into  operation  those  methods  which  distinguish  our 


1 82  THB   MAN   FROM    MARS. 

system.  The  greater  part  of  the  energies  of  our  govern- 
ment and  the  wisdom  of  our  statemanship  have  been 
directed  to  this  end  of  supporting  labor,  and  out  of  it, 
without  question,  comes  the  general  serenity  and  content- 
ment which  prevail. 


THS  MAN   FROM   MARS.  183 


CHAPTER  X. 

Whkn  it  is  decided  by  our  authorities  that  a  new  city 
shall  be  built  to  meet  the  requirements  of  increasing 
numbers,  and  to  establish  that  convenient  co-operation  in 
branches  of  industry  and  trade  which  close  association 
affords,  its  location  is  left  entirely  to  the  judgment  of  a 
board  of  government  officers,  of  sanitary  and  civil  engi- 
neering skill.  If,  as  is  frequently  the  case,  the  proposed 
site  is  already  occupied  by  one  or  more  tenants  in  rural 
pursuits,  they  are  scrupulously  indemnified  in  all  losses 
which  result  from  their  dispossession. 

I  wish  to  impress  upon  you  here,  that  a  tenant,  under 
our  government,  has  even  greater  security  of  possession 
than  your  land  owners.  The  prevailing  sense  of  justice, 
and  a  widespread  interest,  have  established  the  right  of  a 
renter  to  hold  and  enjoy,  against  all  competition,  his  allot- 
ment during  his  Hfe.  He  has  also  the  right,  under  our 
custom,  to  convey  its  possession  by  will ;  and  it  is  more 
generally  the  case  on  our  planet  than  on  yours,  that  a 
piece  of  land  is  held  for  generations  in  the  same  family. 


1 84  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

Our  government  exercises  some  rights  of  interference,  to 
the  end  that  the  size  of  a  farm  shall  conform,  as  near  as 
possible,  to  such  dimensions  as  to  employ  no  great  excess 
of  labor  over  that  capable  of  being  supplied  by  the  family 
of  the  occupant.  In  a  general  way,  the  tenant  enjoys 
the  same  rights  of  ownership  which  are  held  by  your 
individual  holders  in  fee,  except  that  he  cannot  convey 
title,  and  does  not  take  to  himself  any  emolument  arising 
from  increased  value.  His  rent  is  simply  an  equivalent 
to  your  tax,  with  the  very  important  difference,  that  its 
amount  depends  entirely  on  the  season's  productiveness, 
and  is  never  a  burden. 

Once  decided  upon,  the  proposed  city  becomes  the  sub- 
ject of  universal  interest.  Its  plans  are  submitted  and 
approved,  just  as  your  proposals  for  a  single  edifice.  All 
its  parts  must  conform  with  each  other ;  the  choice  of  its 
location  chiefly  depends  upon  drainage  and  water  supply, 
and  it  possesses  these  advantages  in  the  highest  perfection. 
Every  house  must  be  erected  in  conformity  with  rules. 
Work  is  commenced  by  the  erection  of  public  buildings 
in  the  center,  and  the  laying  of  drain,  water,  heat  and 
electric  conduits  through  its  newly  surveyed  streets. 
People  come  to  it,  as  they  cbme  to  your  new  cities,  for  the 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  1 85 

purpose  of  gain  in  trade  and  industry,  and  locate  them- 
selves as  they  choose  under  a  fixed  and  uniform  land 
rental.  They  erect  edifices  as  you  do,  varying  them  as 
they  like  in  their  internal  structure,  but  strictly  conform- 
ing in  their  outer  elevations  to  the  style  adopted  by  our 
architectural  commission,  which  supervises  also  the 
material  employed,  and  the  safety  and  durability  of  the 
work.  Any  disreputable  or  depraved  quarter  is  of  course 
impossible  under  this  plan  ;  nor  could  such  an  encourage- 
ment and  propagation  of  crime  exist  in  one  of  our  cities, 
as  they  do  in  yours,  even  had  we  the  class  of  tenants  to 
people  them.  It  must  be  charged  among  the  evils  of 
your  landlordism,  that  it  not  only  promots  vice  through 
its  tendency  to  impoverish  your  masses,  but  is  ready  at  all 
times  to  multiply  it,  by  affording  quarters  for  convenient 
association. 

The  spectacle  of  our  city  in  course  of  construction  is 
very  different  from  yours.  The  government  has  set  aside, 
what  may  be  computed  in  your  way  as  millions  of  money 
for  the  institution  of  various  works  designed  for  the 
health  and  comfort  of  the  new  population,  and  people  are 
arriving  in  thousands  from  all  quarters  to  do  the  work. 
Every  one  of  them  is  impressed  with  that  feeling  and 


1 86  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

interest  which  can  only  arise  from  ownership,  and  there 
is  not  a  single  one  of  them  who  is  not  performing  some 
of  the  work.  No  one  of  them  has  a  hope  for  honor  and 
wealth  by  getting  a  monopoly  of  the  land.  No  rich  man 
comes  with  his  accumulations  to  get  a  perpetual  lien  upon 
the  industries  that  are  just  now  springing  up,  and  to  hold 
for  himself  and  his  descendants  the  privilege  of  exacting 
daily  for  all  time  a  larger  share  of  the  earnings  of  labor 
than  your  slaveholders  derive  from  their  human  chattels. 
All  choose  to  work,  because  it  is  both  honorable  and 
profitable  to  do  so,  and  also  because  it  is  a  duty,  the  con- 
scious fulfillment  of  which  is  attended  with  a  feeling  of 
happiness. 

The  systematic  and  regular  use  of  the  voluntary  mus- 
cles, without  excessive  fatigue,  has  not  only  an  important 
influence  on  health,  but  assists  as  well  to  develop  perfect 
and  well  rounded  brains,  out  of  which  can  only  come 
those  evenly  balanced  minds  which  create,  out  of  the 
power  of  intelligence,  the  blessings  of  human  progress ; 
whence  only  come  those  level  headed  men,  who  are  dis- 
tinguished among  yourselves  as  being  never  wholly  the 
product  of  learning.  It  is  an  axiom  with  us,  that  he  who 
does  not  produce  has  no  right  to  consume,  and  this  doc- 


the;  man  from  mars.  187 

trine  has  been  so  carried  out  in  our  society  that  physical 
inertia,  no  matter  how  much  attended  with  wealth,  is 
exceedingly  rare.  As  a  consequence,  affluence  with  us  is 
not  beset  with  the  terrible  penalties  of  ill  health.  The 
muscular  body  in  all  conditions  of  life  is  made  to  act  with 
the  brain  and  nerves. 

We  shall  suppose,  now,  our  city  has  reached  a  period 
of  its  growth  equal  in  time  to  your  decade.  Its  grand 
temple  is  not  quite  completed.  Its  streets  stretch  away 
in  the  distance,  none  of  them  narrower  than  a  hundred 
of  your  feet,  and  some  of  them  more  than  twice  as  wide, 
to  accommodate  the  airships  and  the  larger  warehouses. 
The  lines  of  uniform  house  fronts,  relieved  on  the  street 
coroners  by  elevated  towers,  reach  out  sufficiently  far  into 
the  gradually  changing  suburbs  to  give  a  hint  of  the  long 
and  beautiful  perspectives  that  are  to  come.  From  the 
center  outwards  there  are  reserved,  at  intervals  of  about 
a  half  mile,  spaces  corresponding  ^with  the  area  of  two 
blocks,  which  make  a  circular  belt  around  the  whole. 
These  are  cultivated  and  embellished  in  the  highest  style 
of  gardening  and  landscape  art.  Here  are  located  our 
public  baths,  statues,  monuments,  conservatories,  and 
arenas  for  athletic  sports.     These  pleasure  grounds,  so 


1 88  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

convenient  and  accessible,  diversify  our  city  life  with  a 
taste  and  flavor  of  the  country.  Our  city  grows  in  a  solid 
expansion.  There  are  no  straggling  suburbs,  like  yours. 
Blocks  are  erected  together,  and  always  in  continuation 
of  the  appropriated  space  adjoining  them.  The  inter- 
course and  demeanor  of  our  population  are,  as  you  may 
expect,  unlike  yours.  The  general  air  of  serenity  and 
contentment,  the  uniform  politeness,  and  the  absence  of 
degradation,  with  its  frequent  unpleasant  and  disgraceful 
episodes,  mark  the  difference  between  your  city  popula- 
tion and  ours. 

It  concerns  us  most,  however,  to  make  a  comparison  of 
our  wealth  producing  agencies,  and  the  channels  of  their 
distribution,    and   for    this    purpose   we   shall   take   our 
metropolis  as  it  stands  in  its  maturity.     It  contains,  now, 
like  your  city  of  advanced  growth,  about  three  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants.      Its  land  rentals  have  been  sub- 
jected to  constant  modification,  and  are  in  some  places 
very  much  higher  than  they  were  at  first.       In  certain 
localities,  where  trade  has  concentrated,  the  public  fund 
has  been  increased  by  a  considerable  advance  of  rent  to 
store  keepers,  but  there  is  no  exorbitant  demand  of  rent 
for  such  favored  places  as  there  is  with  you.     The  purpose 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  189 

of  rent  with  us  being  only  to  meet  the  expenses  of  gov- 
ernment, its  total  is  limited ;  and  consequently,  while  in 
the  mercantile  and  trade  districts,  where  wealth  and 
capital  are  most  heavily  engaged,  it  has  been  materially 
advanced,  a  corresponding  reduction  has  taken  place  in 
the  residence  portions.  The  direct  and  immediate  effect, 
therefore,  of  an  appreciation  of  land  value,  is  to  reduce 
living  expenses  among  the  masses  by  curtailing  their 
rents.  In  the  absence  of  any  monopoly  of  private  owner- 
ship, there  is  no  case,  even  in  the  most  concentrated 
places,  where  rent  forms  anywhere  near  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  business  expense  as  with  you.  By  your  land 
ownership  methods,  landlords  have  an  access  to  both 
pockets  of  the  tenant.  Out  of  one  they  take  to  the  limit 
of  their  greed  whatever  sum  they  choose  for  the  privilege 
of  business  quarters,  or  a  dwelling  place,  and  from  the 
other  a  tithe  on  everything  consumed  by  the  enhanced 
cost  of  its  distribution. 

As  our  material  wants  and  needs  are  very  much  like 
5-ours,  it  is  not  hard  to  make  a  comparative  estimate  of 
the  savings  of  industry.  We  produce  more  wealth  than 
you  in  a  given  time,  even  with  our  shorter  daily  periods 
of  work,  because,  with  few  exceptions,  all  are  engaged  in 


190  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

the  business  of  production.  By  this  increased  produc- 
tiveness every  consumer  is  richer.  He  is  able  by  a  smaller 
amount  of  labor  to  procure  a  greater  amount  of  the 
objects  of  desire.  Our  production  is  more  perfect  than 
yours,  by  the  use  of  more  perfect  machinery.  Our 
division  of  labor  is  more  complete  than  yours.  Our 
workmen  having  abundant  leisure  for  intellectual 
development,  all  the  practical  advantages  of  knowledge 
and  science  are  immediately  brought  into  efifect.  By 
avoiding  your  great  waste  of  capital  by  excessive  gov- 
ernment expenditures,  it  is  constantly  so  abundant  with 
us  that  its  proportion  to  labor  makes  labor  remunerative. 
We  have  now  assumed  for  the  purpose  of  comparison 
that  the  two  cities,  one  of  Mars  and  one  of  the  Earth, 
have  each  three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants ;  and  that, 
allowing  for  women  and  children  not  engaged  in  produc- 
tive industry,  one  hundred  thousand  of  each  city  is 
actively  engaged  in  industrial  pursuits.  As  the  general 
prosperity  of  each  city  depends  upon  the  earnings  of  this 
one  hundred  thousand,  and  the  accumulations  in  capital 
and  wealth  upon  the  amount  saved  by  these  productive 
classes,  let  us  make  a  relative  estimate  of  the  opportuni- 
ties each  possess  in  individual  savings.     Having  no  com- 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  IQI 

mon  medium  of  exchange  upon  which  to  base  our  estimate, 
let  us  take  the  value  of  a  day's  labor  for  that  purpose. 
The  income  of  a  city  is  derived  from  two  sources,  the 
aggregate  wages  of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  combined 
profits  of  its  capital.  The  latter,  however,  being  entirely 
derived  from  consumers,  is  largely  contributed  to  by  the 
inhabitants  themselves.  And  for  the  reason  that  all 
imported  products,  as  well  as  those  exported,  bear  the 
profits  of  capital  in  their  rates  of  sale,  we  may  safely  say 
that  an  amount  very  nearly  equal  to  the  whole  profits  of 
capital  of  a  city  is  paid  by  the  consumers  within  its  limits 
as  capital  profits.  The  chief  source  of  your  city's  yearly 
income  then  is  about  thirty-one  million  days'  labor.  Out 
of  this  you  must  pay  for  expenses,  under  your  system, 
two  million  days'  labor  for  government  taxes,  fifteen 
million  days'  labor  for  ground  rent,  two  million  days' 
labor  for  water,  two  million  days'  labor  for  insurance,  and 
with  the  balance  of  ten  million  days'  labor  you  must  pay 
the  cost  of  food,  raiment,  fuel,  the  portion  of  rent  esti- 
mated in  buildings,  together  with  the  various  incidentals 
of  furniture  and  house  lights.  You  will  observe  that  all 
these  expenses  except  the  first  are  largely  loaded  with  the 
profits  of  capital,  so  that  with  the  income  and  expense  as 


192  THE    MAN    FROM    MARS. 

set  forth  you  may  be  in  a  progressive  condition,  as  that 
term  is  defined  by  3'ou.  That  is  to  say,  your  capital  may 
increase,  and  your  wealth  may  be  very  greatly  aug- 
mented. The  enormous  proportion  of  your  earnings 
carried  away  by  rent,  although  drawn  very  largely  from 
your  business  districts,  is  contributed  equally  by  the 
whole  in  the  increased  cost  of  all  products  consumed. 
Of  your  one  hundred  thousand  producers,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  twenty  thousand  of  them  have  capital  investments. 
Among  these  is  divided  the  whole  of  the  surplus  of  the 
city's  earnings.  The  eighty  thousand  engaged  in  the 
business  of  directly  creating  wealth  are  doomed,  under 
your  cruel  system,  to  sweat  and  toil  from  sun  to  sun  with- 
out accumulations.  You  accept  this  condition  of  things 
as  inevitable,  and  your  economists  contend  that  the  real 
or  natural  remuneration  of  labor  is  the  bare  means  of  sub- 
sistence. We  have  seen  the  unrighteous  origin  of  this 
prodigious  fund,  which  absorbs  one  third  of  the  earnings 
of  labor  at  least :  let  us  examine  its  perpetual  effects  upon 
the  interests  of  those  who  toil. 

lyooking  upon  your  civilization,  we  find  in  its  modern 
aspects  a  wonderful  increase  in  all  the  appliances  and  con- 
ditions which  accumulate  wealth.       Among  these  may  be 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  193 

specified  a  better  and  more  economical  division  of  labor, 
the  discoveries  of  science,  labor  saving  inventions,  and 
altogether  as  a  result,  greatly  increased  productiveness. 

Added  to  these  contributions  of  knowledge  and  science 
in  the  interest  of  the  working  class,  you  have,  during  the 
last  century,  experienced  the  most  remarkable  acquisi- 
tion in  favor  of  labor  that  was  ever  known  upon  your 
planet.  I  allude  to  the  accession  of  new  and  fertile  lands, 
over  which  the  boundaries  of  civilization  have  been 
extended,  and  out  of  which,  by  the  new  methods  and 
contrivances  both  of  husbandry  and  transportation,  the 
food  supplies  of  the  Earth  have  been  made  to  flow  in  a 
steady  stream  toward  the  districts  of  their  consumption. 
These  immense  advantages  could  not  fail  to  have,  in  some 
degree,  a  beneficent  effect  upon  your  labor  class.  Inas- 
much as  your  workmen  of  to-day  are  enabled  to  obtain 
more  of  the  comforts  of  life  than  formerly,  real  wages  may 
be  said  to  have  considerably  advanced.  Their  share, 
however,  of  the  wealth  produced  is  as  small  a  portion  as 
formerly.  By  the  modern  necessities  which  custom  has 
rendered  diificult  to  avoid,  they  have  become  larger 
consumers,  which  in  itself  has  enabled  your  capital,  with 
its  undue  advantages,    to  increase  its  store  out   of   all 


194  '^^^   ^^-^^^   FROM   MARS. 

proportion  to  a  fair  division  of  the  wealth  produced.  But 
the  greater  and  cheaper  food  supply,  and  the  abundant 
capital  of  your  recent  times,  while  serving  to  neutralize 
the  depressing  effect  of  increase  of  population  in  the 
labor  ranks,  and  to  institute  a  condition  of  general  pros- 
perity in  trade  and  mercantile  pursuits,  has  at  the  same 
time  ofifered  to  all  your  monopolists  of  land  the  opportu- 
nity to  extort,  under  the  pressure  of  competition,  the 
whole  surplus  of  the  earnings  of  your  workmen.  Pre- 
cisely the  same  happy  conditions  which  have  brought  a 
modicum  of  prosperity  to  them  have  created  a  richer  field 
for  your  monopolists,  and  especially  for  those  of  them  who 
by  their  ownership  of  city  land  can  exact  from  the 
extended  demands  of  business,  and  a  rapidly  multiplying 
population,  an  unfair  portion  of  the  wealth  produced. 
The  unlimited  privilege  of  appropriating  to  themselves 
the  utmost  share  of  the  profits  of  industry,  gives  a  specu- 
lative value  to  the  holdings  of  your  landlords,  and  serves 
in  turn  to  furnish  them  the  excuse  of  a  parallel  in  their 
charges  for  rent  to  the  current  rate  of  interest  on  money. 
If  industry  can  be  forced  to  make  over  to  them  a  third  of 
its  earnings  now,  the  possibilities  of  the  future  shadow 
golden  dreams,  which  promise  no  less  to  them  than  the 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  195 

power  of  your  imaginary  Midas— dreams  which  encour- 
age an  easier  wealth-making  than  was  possessed  by  your 
olden  barons,  who  by  force  of  arms  were  enabled  to 
hold,— what  your  modern  law  and  custom  equaUy 
allows,— the  privilege  of  sapping  the  industry  of  millions 
of  busy  hands  of  all  else  but  a  bare  sustenance  and  a 
shelter  from  the  elements. 

That  rent  does  not  to  any  great  extent  enter  into  the 
cost  of  your  agricultural  products,  is  due  to  the  abun- 
dance of  new  land  coming  constantly  under  cultivation, 
and  to  that  equalizing  of  situations  which  your  railroads 
promote.  An  increase  in  the  demand  for  food,  and  the 
promise  of  an  advance  in  its  price,  brings  under  cultiva- 
tion lands  of  lesser  fertility  or  those  more  remote  from 
your  markets.  The  monopoly  power  of  agricultural  land 
ownership  is  thereby  effectually  destroyed.  So  long  as 
these  favorable  conditions  exist,  the  cost  of  your  food 
staples  will  be  governed  by  the  value  alone  of  the  labor 
employed.  The  profits  of  capital,  therefore,  take  no  part 
in  them  until  they  leave  the  hands  of  the  producer. 
There  is  no  value  in  your  cultivated  lands  of  the  lesser 
fertiUty,  except  in  the  opportunity  they  afford  for  labor 
to  exchange  its  services  for  money.     This   class   of  land 


196  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

fixes  the  price  of  and  cheapens  the  food  of  the  Earth. 
The  value  of  all  lands  from  these  upwards  in  degrees  of 
fertility  is  estimated  by  the  amount  of  produce  derived 
from  a  given  amount  of  labor,  and  except  in  a  few  favor- 
ite situations  there  is  as  yet  no  monopoly  value  in  your 
cultivated  lands.  To  this,  more  than  anything  else,  is 
due  the  comparativecheapnessof  your  food,  and  the  steady 
and  unrestricted  increase  of  your  population.  In  time, 
however,  for  reasons  to  obvious  to  require  mention,  rent 
must  enter  into  the  original  element  of  cost  among  your 
food  staples,  just  as  it  now  so  largely  takes  a  part  in  the 
cost  of  their  distribution.  The  fullest  manifestation  of 
the  evils  of  your  private  ownership  system  will  then  take 
place.  The  signs  of  what  may  occur  at  that  rapidly 
approaching  critical  period  are  to  be  seen  in  the  complete- 
ly merciless  character  of  5'our  wealth  holders,  who,  in  the 
face  of  a  divine  intelligence,  which  has  so  charitably 
provided  an  even  abundance  to  all,  attempt  to  subvert  the 
natural  laws  of  trade  by  unfair  combinations,  known 
among  you  as  trusts  and  syndicates,  wherein  the  common 
welfare  is  made  a  sacrifice  to  their  determined  and  unscru- 
pulous love  of  gain. 

You  have  perhaps  not  fully  considered  how  it  has  come 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  197 

to  pass  that  your  wealth  is  so  generally   without  the  best 
feelings  and  impulses  of  humanity.     The  desire  to  accu- 
mulate which  prevades  all  classes  can  accomplish  nothing 
in  the  ranks  of  labor,  except  for  those  who  possess  it  in 
an  inordinate  degree.     The  anxiety  for  gain  must  be  so 
intense  as  to  overwhelm  the  wish  for  gratifications  within 
reach,  and  to  produce  a  fortitude  of  restraint  which  denies 
every  dispensable  want  and  pleasure.      Is  is  only  the  few 
who  have  this  power  of  abstinence  that  can  escape  a  life 
of   drudgery.      The  ranks  of   capital   and  wealth    are 
largely  recruited   from   this   body  of  abstainers.     Under 
the  depressing  effects  of   your   monopolistic  condition, 
ordinary  prudence  and  moderate  abstemiousness  are  not, 
as  a  rule,  capable  of  laying  the   foundation  of  wealth. 
You  have,  consequently,  by  a  natural  process  of  selection, 
the  ranks  of  your  moneyed  classes  filled  up,  for  the  most 
part,  by  the  most  aggressively  mercenary  and  acquisitive 
of  your  race ;  while  the  better  part  of  humanity,  where 
the  self-sacrificing  and  generous  impulses  most  prevail, 
must  pay  the  penalty  of  its  virtues  in  unrelieved  depen- 
dence.    Your  successful  moneyed  class,  coming  in  time 
to  that  place  of  power  which   its   wealth   procures  for  it, 
shapes  and  directs  your  legislation  ;   which,  as  you  might 


1 98  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

expect,  instead  of  being  devoted,  as  it  should  be,  chiefly 
to  the  support  of  measures  to  equalize  and  ameliorate  the 
conditions  of  all  classes,  works  the  machinery  for  govern- 
ment for  its  own  selfish  ends,  making  easy  and  com- 
fortable paths  for  those  schemes  which  multiply  its 
wealth. 

While  the  wish  to  accumulate  is  acknowledged  to  be 
the  fountain  head  of  all  material  progress,  its  accom- 
plishment, under  our  system,  is  mostly  the  reward  of 
those  qualities  of  the  mind  which  are  not  safe  lessons  for 
common  acceptance.  Your  examples  of  material  success 
are  not  good  studies,  if  charity  and  the  true  public  spirit 
are  to  be  considered  as  worthy  of  being  enlarged  by 
precept. 


THB  MAN    FROM    MARS.  199 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Our  more  advanced  civilization  and  truer  democracy- 
exhibit  themselves  nowhere  more  strikingly,  than  in  the 
way  in  which  we  have  determined  the  equal  division  of 
land  interests.  With  our  city  of  three  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  its  income  during  the  same  period  of 
time  as  yours  of  thirty-one  million  days'  labor,  there  is 
assessed  by  our  authorities  about  the  sum  as  ground  rent 
equivalent  to  eight  million  average  days'  pay  of  our 
workmen.  For  this  amount  in  hand,  our  government 
furnishes  to  its  tenants,  without  further  cost,  perfected 
streets  in  constant  repair,  abundance  of  Vv'ater  for  house- 
hold and  other  purposes,  lights  both  in  houses  and  streets, 
heat  by  our  system  (to  you  undiscovered),  perfect  drain- 
age without  cost  or  repair  of  conduits,  insurance  against 
individual  loss  by  fire  or  flood,  free  burial  of  the  dead, 
and  a  system  of  education  bestowing  upon  every  indi- 
vidual the  higher  branches  of  study. 

Besides  this  immense  service,  the  government  provides 
religious  edifices,  buildings  for  public  entertainment,  and 


200  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

pleasure  grounds.  And  all  this,  you  will  bear  in  mind, 
at  a  less  cost  to  our  population  than  j'our  landlords  exact 
of  you  for  ground  rent  alone.  Adding  to  this  four 
million  days'  labor  for  rent,  paid  to  private  owners  of 
buildings,  and  we  have  left  nineteen  million  days'  labor 
for  living  expenses  not  provided  by  our  government,  and 
out  of  which  come  all  the  profit  and  accumulations  of 
capital,  except  those  derived  from  rents  of  buildings. 
You  will  see  thereby,  that  with  all  the  monopoly  privi- 
leges that  have  fastened  themselves  upon  your  system 
done  away  with,  capital  has  yet  a  full  scope  to  exercise 
its  legitimate  functions  in  the  fields  of  production  and 
distribution,  apart  from  which  it  has  no  rights  and  is 
entitled  to  no  legislative  consideration. 

It  is  only  by  expunging  the  demands  and  profits  of 
capital  that  the  government  is  enabled  to  furnish  all  these 
services  mentioned  at  so  small  a  cost.  We  hold  it  to  be  a 
principle  of  justice,  that  the  natural  elements  should  not 
be  permitted  to  form  the  basis  of  corporate  management 
or  monopoly  control,  and  therefore  instead  of  allowing 
capital  the  fullest  privilege  to  appropriate  those  bounties 
of  nature  which  are  found  ready  for  use,  we  have 
restricted  its  operations  to  a  mere  partnership  with  labor. 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  20I 

where  it  justly  belongs.  In  our  endeavors  to  sustain 
labor,  and  equalize  its  opportunities  with  capital,  we  have 
gone  much  further  than  this.  We  hold  that  all  public 
necessities  of  general  demand,  in  the  supplying  of  which 
large  expenditures  are  required  in  fixed  capital,  and  which 
are  not  strictly  in  the  line  of  production,  should  be  pro- 
vided for  by  the  government.  We  remove  the  burdens 
of  labor,  by  relieving  it  of  those  large  capital  enterprises 
which  subsist  on  it,  and  which  fail  to  share  with  it  a  reas- 
onable portion  of  earnings.  The  large  sums  of  money 
and  the  special  privileges  required  in  these  operations  of 
supply,  of  which  your  railroad,  telephone  and  telegraph 
lines  are  prominent  examples,  obstruct  the  natural  ten- 
dency of  competition,  and  capital  and  wealth  are  thereby 
permitted  advantages  over  labor  which  they  should  not 
of  right  have. 

The  unlimited  privilege  of  capital  in  these  directions 
has  been  defended  on  the  ground  that  it  greatly  accel- 
erates your  material  progress ;  that  in  private  hands  these 
enterprises  can  be  more  economically  managed  ;  and  that 
the  centralization  of  power  in  a  government  would  be 
dangerously  increased  by  the  proprietorship  of  such 
large  undertakings.     All  of  these  allegations  except  the 


202  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

first  are  without  foundation  in  fact.  The  growing  polid- 
cal  weight,  especially  in  your  representative  governments, 
of  all  monopoly  combinations,  by  reason  of  their  wealth 
and  large  individual  patronage,  presents  to  you  the  choice 
of  either  a  government  ruled  by  outside  influences,  which 
cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  evils  it  inadvertantly 
inflicts  by  the  irresistable  pressure  from  without,  or  a 
government  entirely  and  absolutely  liable,  and  to  be  held 
to  a  strict  accountability  for  all  encroachments  upon  the 
common  welfare  while  handling  these  services  of  supply. 
In  the  latter  case  your  remedy  is  an  easy  one  ;  and  may 
be  readily  applied  ;  while  in  the  former,  nothing  short  of 
a  political  convulsion  will  serve  you.  No  advanced 
government  upon  your  Earth  has  ever  undertaken  a 
public  service  of  any  magnitude  for  a  long  term,  which 
has  not  been  systematized  and  improved  by  all  the  avail- 
able knowledge  and  science  of  its  time.  The  diSerence 
between  a  public  and  a  private  supply  of  a  common 
demand  is,  that  to  one  is  added  the  costs  and  profits  of 
capital ;  while  the  other,  shorn  of  these  oftentimes  exces- 
sive exactions,  is  furnished  at  the  cheapest  rate  possible. 
Any  policy  of  your  governments,  no  matter  how 
unwisely   adopted,    becomes   in   time  a   fixture  which  is 


THE  MAN   FROM   MARS.  203 

difficult  to  remove.  The  abuses  which  it  may  be  known 
to  produce  are  tolerated  long  after  its  evil  is  understood. 
Yet,  there  is  scarcely  one  of  these  which  has  not  had  its 
active  defenders.  The  able  defense  of  measures  which 
have  long  since  been  expunged  for  their  flagrant  injustice, 
exhibit  some  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  mental 
obliquity  in  your  annals.  No  government  of  the  Earth, 
however,  in  its  long  legislative  career,  was  ever  known  to 
favor  the  laboring  and  landless  over  the  interests  of  those 
holding  endowments  of  the  Earth's  surface.  What  seems 
at  a  superficial  glance  to  be  in  your  own  country  such  a 
measure,  in  what  may  be  generally  termed  your  land 
policy,  with  its  homestead  provisions,  becomes  upon  a 
closer  examination  delusive.  Every  one  of  your  laws  for 
the  pretended  purpose  of  bestowing  your  territory  upon 
labor  bears  the  covert  design  or  connivance  to  further  the 
opportunities  of  capital.  From  the  inauguration  of  your 
system,  capital  and  wealth  have  been  gradually  absorbing 
your  lands,  and  the  partnership  of  labor  in  them  is  as 
transitory  and  accidental  as  the  opportunities  afforded  in 
the  early  stages  of  your  city's  growth. 

The  fact  appears  that,  in  your  present  development,  the 
general  sens6  of  individual  acquisitiveness  among   your 


204  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

governing  classes  is  too  great  to  deal  fairly  with  the 
whole  body  of  your  people  under  such  seductive  oppor- 
tunities for  self- gain.  You  cannot  prevent,  under  your 
present  system  of  private  ownership,  the  lands  now  held 
by  your  people  from  drifting  into  a  comparatively  few 
hands.  This  process,  although  going  on  for  years, 
gradually  accelerates,  and  will  rapidly  become  apparant 
when  the  last  of  your  public  territory  shall  have  passed 
out  of  the  hands  of  your  government.  The  owners  of 
your  lands  always  have,  and  will  continue  to  govern  the 
countries  of  the  Earth.  No  representative  government 
can  exist  long  without  a  system  which  prevents  the 
monopoly  of  its  territory  by  wealth. 

No  other  idea  appears  to  have  been  held  by  the 
founders  of  your  nation,  but  that  your  land  was  a  chattel, 
to  be  disposed  of  for  money,  and  as  much  a  subject  of 
barter  and  speculation  as  merchandise,  and  like  it,  liable 
to  that  depression  in  value  which  a  superabundant  supply 
produces.  Its  unequalled  advantages  as  a  subject  for 
speculation  became  more  and  more  apparent  as  your 
population  increased.  It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
irrestible  influence  of  the  mercenary  impulse  on  your 
planet,  that  those  who  where  prominent   in   establishing 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  205 

SO  many  advances  toward  equalizing  the  conditions  and 
privileges  of  their  fellowmen  held,  in  the  aggregate 
among  themselves,  the  title  and  possession  of  which  they 
stood  ready  to  defend,  an  area  of  the  Earth's  surface 
equal  to  about  eight  million  of  your  acres,  one  hundred 
thousand  acres  being  in  possession  of  him  who  became 
the  first  presiding  officer  of  your  republic.  I  do  not  refer 
to  these  facts  in  a  spirit  of  censure  to  those  men,  so 
enlightened  and  liberty  loving  beyond  their  times  ;  but 
only  to  show  that  singular  limit  of  vision  which  sincerely 
proclaimed  the  equality  of  all  men,  which  fostering  a 
political  method  which  must  in  time  enslave  or  pauperize 
the  majority. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  unlimited  privileges 
of  capital  in  these  directions  have  greatly  accelerated 
your  material  progress.  The  speedy  utilization  of  the 
immense  resources  of  your  own  republic  has  hidden  and 
disguised  the  evil  it  was  graudally  producing.  The  new 
fields  of  labor  opened  by  the  many  monopoly  enterprises 
have  satisfied  and  quieted  it ;  and  the  open  invitation,  for 
the  time  being,  of  a  partnership  with  capital  in  the  occu- 
pancy of  the  soil  for  purposes  of  cultivation,  leaves  no 
apparent  ground  of  complaint  among  the  masses  who  toil. 


2o6  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

Thus  have  your  demands  for  labor  been  so  much  greater 
than  the  supply,  that  large  accessions  have  been  drawn 
from  the  older  countries  of  the  Earth.  These  furnishing 
the  bone  and  sinew  for  still  more  rapid  development,  your 
progress  has  become  the  wonder  of  the  age.  You  will 
perceive,  however,  that  the  general  prosperity  among  all 
classes  of  your  society,  and  the  absence  of  any  great 
public  grievance,  is  just  that  condition  which  render  the 
incursions  of  capital  and  wealth  easy,  so  that  during  all 
your  enormous  accumulations  by  the  hands  of  your 
workers,  out  of  which  they  have  little  to  show  of  gain 
besides  their  living  expenses,  the  most  stupendous 
moneyed  fortunes  of  history  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  few.  Unlike  the  older  countries  of  the  Earth,  where 
the  increasing  poverty  of  the  masses  is  a  natural  and 
unavoidable  sequence  of  the  large  accumulations  of 
wealth  in  few  hands,  your  poor  do  not  grow  sensibly 
poorer  during  this  unequal  distribution.  Your  enormous 
resources  hold  up  labor  to  a  condition  of  comparative 
prosperity  during  all  these  inroads  upon  it.  As  a  conse- 
quence, of  the  abundance  which  the  bounties  of  nature 
have  supplied  to  you,  and  the  stimulated  energies  which 
your  rewarded  industries  have  induced,  your  labor  uncon- 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  207 

sciously  submits  to  the  extraction  of  an  unfair  portion  of 
the  wealth  it  produces  without  individual  suffering.  The 
better  condition  of  your  workmen  compared  with  those 
of  other  lands  should  not  disguise  the  fact,  however,  that 
capital  and  wealth  get  new  assurance,  and  encouraged  to 
fresh  demands  upon  the  industries  on  this  account. 
Although  your  poor  do  not  yet  grow  sensibly  poorer, 
your  rich  are  getting  immeasurably  richer.  The  better 
opportunities  for  labor  have  brought  millions  of  workers 
from  abroad,  who  in  their  rapid  development  of  the 
country  have  so  immensely  appreciated  land  values  that 
the  bosom  of  the  Earth  has  been  converted  into  a  chattel 
for  speculation,  and  the  chief  business  of  wealth  has  been 
to  pocket  the  increase  which  it  has  not  earned. 

You  cannot  fail  to  have  observed,  that  to  this  period  your 
money  class  has  had  but  little  to  do  with  land  in  your 
agricultural  districts,  except  to  buy  and  sell  it.  Capital, 
other  than  that  limited  quantity  which  has  been  created 
on  the  land,  has  not  thus  far  been  led  into  the  business  of 
its  cultivation,  because  from  the  abundance  and  easy 
acquirement  of  land  it  must  come,  in  so  doing,  in  such 
direct  competition  with  labor  as  not  to  leave  a  satisfactory 
margin  of  profit.      When,  however,    your   public  lands 


i208  tHK   MAN    FJROM    MARS. 

shall  have  been  all  conveyed  to  private  hands,  at  which 
time  the  price  of  land  products  will  not  be  governed  as 
now  by  the  willingness  of  labor  to  make  out  of  their 
production  a  mere  exchange  for  fair  wages,  then,  and 
not  till  then,  will  you  find  capital  embarking  to  any  great 
extent  into  the  business  of  agriculture. 

When  this  time  arrives,  a  change  in  your  economy  will 
gradually  take  place.  The  relations  held  by  labor  with 
capital,  which  have  heretofore  been  so  modified  by  the 
easier  conditions  of  the  former,  with  its  abundance  of  free 
soil  to  absorb  its  surplus,  will  be  driven  back  to  its  old 
state  of  greater  dependence.  It  will  no  longer  experience 
the  great  advantage  it  has  held  so  long  in  its  partnership 
with  the  fertile  earth.  Its  depression  will  reduce  the 
earnings  of  innumerable  monopoly  schemes,  and  the 
speculative  opportunities  of  capital  in  the  former  rapid 
rise  of  land  values  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The 
acquirement  of  land  for  use  and  cultivation  will  then 
become  one  of  the  most  promising  investments  for  capital 
extant.  There  will  be  a  rise  in  the  price  of  food  staples, 
and  rent  for  the  first  time  in  your  history  will  enter  into 
them  as  a  large  element  of  cost. 

More  than  one  easily  recognized  agency  of  your  civili- 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  209 

zation  will  tend  to  reduce  the  number  of  j^our  small  farms, 
and  to  throw  the  business  of  food  supply  completely  under 
the  control  of  your  wealthy  and  capital  class.  Your 
small  holders  now  occupying  lands  of  the  lower  grades  of 
fertility,  and  who  with  their  limited  means  but  little  more 
than  sustain  themselves,  will  readily  submit  their  titles  to 
capitalists,  who  with  the  advantage  of  costly  labor  saving 
machines,  will  find  the  cultivation  of  a  number  of  such 
tracts  thrown  into  one  of  suflScient  profit  to  engage  their 
means. 

The  labor  saving  contrivances  which  your  ingenuity 
has  devised  for  agricultural  pursuits  will  hasten  the 
demand  for  larger  holdings,  and  although  they  greatly 
cheapen  the  expense  of  production,  they  will  not  lower 
the  market  price  of  food.  While  machinery  more  than 
makes  up  for  its  curtailment  of  the  services  of  labor,  by 
its  cheaper  supplies  to  it  in  articles  of  manufacture,  no 
such  open  and  unrestricted  competition  can  exist  in 
the  supply  of  commodities  which  require,  as  a  necessitj' 
of  their  production,  a  natural  agent  whose  possession  is 
in  every  sense  of  the  word  a  monopoly. 

Machinery  has  never  cheapened  the  supply  of  raw 
materials  which  come  directly  from  the  soil,  because  its 


2IO  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

use  for  cultivation  has  only  been  exceptional,  and  it  can 
never  become  general  as  long  as  land  is  held  in  small 
tracts.  This  very  condition  is  the  one  which  will  engage 
the  attention  of  investors  in  land  for  the  profits  of  use, 
and  at  the  first  permanent  advance  in  the  price  of  your 
food  staples  the  operation  of  turning  small  farms  into 
large  ones  will  begin. 

The  privilege  and  the  hope  of  all  to  get  possession  of  a 
large  or  small  portion  of  the  earth's  surface,  gives  to  your 
personal  ownership  system  an  appearance  of  fairness  not 
at  variance  with  your  popular  aspirations  of  equality,  and 
the  evil  will  not  be  generally  admitted,  until  it  gets  to  be 
more  seriously  felt. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  of  you  that  the  principle  of  equality, 
as  we  understand  it,  has  never  been  sincerely  considered 
or  acted  upon  by  any  of  the  governments  of  the  earth. 
You  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  a  serving  and 
dependent  class,  composing  four-fifths  of  your  numbers, 
must  always  assist  to  make  up  the  sum  of  your  popula- 
tion, and  no  legislative  measure  can  be  found  in  your 
records  which  sustains  this  large  body  of  your  people 
against  the  encroachments  with  which  wealth  and  capital 
are     continually     permitted    to    invade    their    interests. 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  211 

lyiberty  itself  is  of  but  little  value,  when  life  becomes  a 
forfeiture  of  all  the  ways  and  means  to  improve  it. 
There  is,  in  fact,  no  liberty  in  the  correct  sense,  where 
all  the  moments  of  life  must  be  bartered  for  the  means 
to  live. 

So  far  as  your  development  has  progressed,  the  senti- 
ment of  brotherhood,  as  we  know  it,  has  never  intruded 
itself  into  the  spirit  of  your  legislation.  The  spectacle 
of  four-fifths  of  your  number  toiling  from  sun  to  sun  to 
no  purpose  but  that  the  balance  may  be  enriched  has 
inspired  no  compassion,  and  evoked  no  measure  of  relief. 
In  the  regions  of  your  authority,  where  there  should  be 
some  touch  of  the  fraternal  instinct,  nothing  presides  but 
the  selfish  and  mercenary  genius  of  Mamnon.  The 
divine  impulse  for  better  things  is  among  you,  but  instead 
of  laying  out  its  work  in  the  practical  afifair  of  life,  it  has 
been  diverted  into  the  channels  of  your  busy  but  unfruit- 
ful creeds.  You  wear  your  religion  like  a  holiday 
garment.  We  have  learned  to  wear  ours  as  a  common 
garb. 

The  past  is  burnt  out,  with  a  residue  of  but  little  value 
except  as  a  warning.  The  future  is  not  ours,  but  of  the 
universe  with   its  hidden  and   irrevocable  destiny.     The 


212  THE   MAN    FSOM    MARS. 

present  belongs  to  us,  and  it  is  our  creed  to  be  happy  in 
its  possession.  We  could  have  sown  fears  as  you  have, 
and  could  have  been  as  overwhelmed  with  their  multiplied 
terrors.  We  could  have  invented  a  circumstantial  para- 
dise like  yours,  with  its  pathway  of  extinguished 
temporal  hopes,  and  its  discouragements  of  the  noblest 
ambitions  to  build  out  of  the  materials  in  sight ;  but  to 
what  purpose  except  an  unworthy  one  ?  The  present  is 
ours.  Our  field  is  among  the  living  things  which 
surround  us.  The  most  of  life  to  us  is  its  possibilities  of 
happiness,  and  the  opportunities  it  affords  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  our  religious  impulses  to  serve  the  Deity  in 
advancing  ourselves  and  our  society  toward  that  state  of 
perfection  to  which  under  the  supreme  intelligence  all 
things  are  seen  to  tend. 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  213 


CHAPTER  XII. 

A  notable  condition  of  your  society  compared  with  ours 
is  the  tardy  advance  of  your  women  from  that  complete 
subjection  to  men  which  existed  in  your  primary  state. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  in  your  present  stage  of  progress 
the  males  of  your  race  should  continue  to  usurp  many  of 
the  privileges  which  came  to  them  as  an  inheritance  from 
a  savage  and  brutal  ancestry  of  comparatively  recent 
existence,  and  your  gradual  awakening  to  a  sense  of 
justice  in  that  direction  is  one  of  the  many  evidences  that 
you  are  moving  along  on  the  lines  marked  out  for  you  by 
the  divine  law  of  evolution  in  thought. 

We  have  found  certain  active  qualities  of  mind,  pre- 
dominating everywhere  in  women,  indispensable  to  a 
better  progress  in  social  advancement,  and  great  things 
have  been  wrought  to  us  by  our  present  absolute  equality 
of  the  sexes.  The  full  value  of  women  as  factors  in 
social  progress  is  not  known,  nor  even  suspected  by  you, 
because  you  have  never  witnessed  the  experiment  of  a 
complete  withdrawal   of   those   restrictions  which   hold 


214  "^^S   M-^N    FROM    MARS. 

them  in  subjection ;  yet,  it  is  a  fact  that  in  what  are  truly 
the  noblest  advances  in  humanitj^  they  are  your  superiors. 
They  have  left  further  behind  them  the  brutalisms  of  the 
past,  are  deeper  touched  with  your  inhumanities,  and  will 
go  further  to  banish  them  than  your  men. 

Your  estimate  of  the  mental  capacity  of  women  is 
singularly  erronious.  The  cropping  out  occasionally  of 
their  intellectual  achievements,  and  the  marked  increase 
of  such  with  the  multiplication  of  opportunities,  must 
have  hinted  to  you  that  their  silence,  and  apparent  inferi- 
ority in  the  higher  mental  efforts,  were  alone  due  to  their 
long  period  of  subordination,  during  which  the  usages  of 
your  society  have  discouraged  any  attempts  to  enter  the 
field  as  competitors  with  men.  In  the  full  swing  of 
opportunity  and  encouragement  allowed  them  by  us,  they 
have  raised  themselves  to  a  very  high  plane,  especially 
in  literature,  poetry  and  art.  We  owe  to  them  many  of  our 
masterpieces  in  these  attainments,  and  their  aptitude  for 
study  and  investigation  is  shown  in  the  even  place  they 
hold  with  us  in  science  and  the  professions.  Those  femi- 
nine qualities  of  mind  which  are  described  by  you  as 
heart,  sympathy,  sentiment  and  emotion,  and  which  are 
generally  considered  by  you  as  out  of  place  in  affairs  of 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  215 

State,  are  the  very  ones  of  which  you  have  the  greatest 
need  in  legislation.  It  is  principally  through  the  feelings 
mentioned  that  divine  impulses  are  expressed,  and  yet 
that  part  of  yourselves  where  they  most  prevail  are 
excluded  from  your  councils. 

A  model  of  all  that  is  best  in  your  governments  is  to 
be  found  no  where  except  within  the  family.  The  ready 
helpfulness  and  equal  attention  to  the  welfare  of  one 
another  within  its  precincts,  extended  into  the  motives 
and  aims  of  your  public  policies,  embrace  everything 
necessary  to  a  perfect  government ;  yet,  you  have  selected 
out  of  the  family  for  the  sole  direction  of  your  public 
affairs  its  hardest  and  most  selfish  part,  its  selfishness 
intensified  in  its  dealings  with  society  beyond  the  confines 
of  home,  by  those  absorbing  paternal  responsibilities — 
in  great  measure  due  to  the  subordination  of  women — 
which  in  many  ways  intefere  with  efforts  for  the  good  of 
the  whole. 

From  the  nature  of  things  your  men  are  more  easily 
overcome  by  evil  political  forces  than  your  women  would 
be.  The  latter,  being  more  closely  allied  to  the  interests 
of  the  family,  in  its  moral  training,  and  less  willing  to 
sacrifice  the  benefit  of  example,    are   consequently   less 


2l6  THE   MAN    FROM   MARS. 

corruptable  than  men.  Women  have  a  greater  natural 
affinity  for  virtue  than  men,  more  unselfishness  and  a 
larger  concern  for  the  moral  welfare  of  mankind, 
exhibited  in  their  more  earnest  support  of  religion. 

With  the  enfranchisement  of  women  the  humanities  of 
life  would  enter  more  largely  into  your  politics.  You 
have  proofs  of  this  in  the  few  local  instances  where  they 
have  been  granted  suflfrage  rights.  The  desirable  family 
methods  and  sentiments,  of  which  they  are  better  expo- 
nents than  men,  have  never  failed  to  come  to  the  surface 
as  indications  of  their  presence.  They  have  invariably 
shown  a  greater  inclination  than  men  to  consider  the 
welfare  of  persons  in  legislation  as  against  the  welfare 
alone  of  property,  which  has  to  the  present  so  monopo- 
lized and  corrupted  your  politics.  Your  legislation  in  the 
hands  of  men  alone  has  accomplished  but  little  in  allevi- 
ating the  distresses  of  humanity.  The  cold  and  calcula- 
ting hand  of  speculation,  which  invests  only  to  call  back 
its  capital  with  high  usury,  has  always  held  your  law 
making  as  a  ready  instrument  for  its  purposes,  and 
without  loftier  views,  your  governments  will  continue  to 
miss  their  opportunities  for  benefitting  mankind.  By  the 
admission  of  women  the  higher  sentiments  would  sooner 


the;  man  from  mars.  217 

find  a  place.  It  would  be  the  first  step  in  bringing 
natural  religion  and  politics  together.  The  present 
irrational  state  of  your  spiritual  beliefs  retards  the  adoption 
of  a  moral  code  in  your  systems  of  government.  With 
you,  the  State  is  led  to  care  for  nothing  in  the  interest  of 
morality,  except  a  punishment  of  its  infractions.  It 
ignores,  as  no  part  of  its  duties,  all  incentitives  to  good- 
ness, and  in  dealing  with  crime  the  service  of  its  preven- 
tion, in  any  other  way  than  punishment,  is  not  considered, 
principally  because  other  departments  of  society  have 
assumed  for  ages  the  public  control  and  promotion  of  the 
virtues. 

A  wider  range  in  the  duties  of  government  is  opposed 
by  many  of  you  as  objectionable  paternalism.  Such  of 
you  overlook  the  fact  that  there  can  be  no  paternalism  in 
a  republic.  Such  a  system  is  co-operation  pure  and 
simple,  and  neither  good  nor  evil  can  permanently  exist 
without  the  consent  of  the  whole.  The  nearer  you  get 
to  complete  co-operation,  the  more  perfect  your  govern- 
ment becomes.  The  greatest  vices  of  misgovernment 
among  you  are  to  be  found  in  granting  precedence  of  one 
interest  over  others,  that  interest  in  most  cases  being  a 
capitalistic  one,  often  antagonizing  the  welfare  of  many 


2l8  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

individuals.  Among  your  industrial  class,  less  than  one- 
tenth  are  employers,  whose  political  weight  has  so  over- 
come the  majority  as  to  have  excluded  any  direct  legisla- 
tion in  its  behalf,  and  so  far  as  these  conditions  exist,  the 
principle  of  co-operation  which  should  be  the  corner 
stone  of  your  government  has  not  been  faithfully  carried 
out.  A  greater,  and  in  our  view,  a  more  glaring  violation 
of  this  principle  is  your  exclusion  of  women  from  the 
rights  of  representation  in  your  government.  You  can- 
not deny  that  they  have  separate  interests  to  care  for. 
You  will  find  upon  examination  of  your  assessment  rolls 
that  nearly  one-fifth  of  all  your  real  and  personal  estate  is 
owned  by  them,  and  of  the  greater  part  of  the  balance 
they  are  interested  by  matrimonial  partnerships  with  men. 
Their  property  ownerships  alone  entitle  them  to  the  rights 
of  suffrage,  in  the  denial  of  which  you  have  no  excuse 
whatever  but  the  usage  and  custom  of  barbaric  ages 
extended  to  the  present,  and  the  predjudice  of  a  societj' 
grown  familiar  and  blinded  to  its  injustice.  The  struggles 
of  labor  for  better  recognition,  and  the  agitation  for 
woman  suffrage  are  evolutionary  movements  in  thought, 
and  in  yovir  advanced  government  indicate  the  coming  of 
a  more  perfect  co-operation. 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  219 

The  political  subjection  of  women,  and  the  subjection 
of  labor  helplessly  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  with- 
out legislative  assistance  or  attention,  are  at  present  your 
most  prominent  relics  of  barbarism.  They  are  both 
endured  because  the  parties  to  be  benefitted  have  never 
yet  enjoyed  the  privileges  due  them.  Neither  one  or  the 
other  are  consequently  aroused  to  action  in  their  own 
behalf,  and  when  these  rights  are  acquired  by  them  it 
will  be  more  owing  to  an  enlightened  public  opinion  than 
to  any  concerted  action  by  themselves.  It  is  well  known 
that  your  slaves  had  little  to  do  with  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  and  it  is  therefore  not  a  proper  argument  against 
the  granting  of  these  privileges  that  the  persons  to  be 
benefitted  are  not  all  clamoring  for  them  ;  or  that,  in  the 
case  of  woman  suffrage,  a  large  majority  of  women  are 
indifferent  and  a  few  opposed. 

The  subjection  of  women  to  men  in  all  the  political 
and  business  affairs  of  life  have  greatly  modified  the 
characters  of  both.  You  have  confined  the  lives  of  your 
women  to  innumerable  small  details.  Her  aspirations 
and  powers  have  been  confined  within  this  narrow  scope. 
The  absorbtion  of  their  whole  minds  has  been  in  a  set  of 
small  ideas  and  occupations,  from  one   to  the   other  in 


220  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

continuous  exercise.  In  such  a  life  profound  thought 
and  loftier  emotions  are  not  encouraged.  They  have  but 
little  incentive  to  the  acquirement  of  general  knowledge, 
for  it  can  be  of  no  practical  use  to  them,  and  being  early 
impressed  with  a  sense  of  their  dependence  upon  men, 
their  lives  are  given  up  to  all  the  small  devices  for  obtain- 
ing power  over  them  in  the  sensuous  fields  of  personal 
adornment  and  display.  Theirs,  as  well  as  other  human 
minds,  must  be  shallowed  under  such  conditions ;  yet  of 
the  two  sexes  their  duties  are  the  most  serious  and 
responsible  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  mankind.  Theirs 
is  the  chief  part  in  the  forming  of  minds,  both  by  heredity 
and  training,  and  with  their  limited  opportunities  for 
broadened  thought  you  can  look  for  nothing  more  in 
them  than  those  narrow  predj  udices,  which  are  in  turn 
transmitted,  and  which  are  so  manifest  in  all  your  society. 
This  narrowness  is  one  of  your  most  unhappy  traits  ;  it 
is  almost  universal  among  you.  Until  quite  recently  you 
have  only  had  a  man  here  and  there  capable  and  willing 
to  fairly  examine  a  question  which  interferes  with  tradi- 
tional beliefs  and  old  modes  of  thought.  You  have 
formed  no  conception  of  how  much  this  state  of  things  is 
due  to  the  limited  mental  horizon  in  which  your  women 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  221 

have  been  confined.  The  intellects  of  your  best  men 
have  not  been  multiplied  and  reproduced  as  they  should 
have  been,  owing  to  the  loss  of  their  strength  and  fibre 
in  the  process  of  reproduction,  through  your  average 
non-high  thought  producing  female  minds. 

The  extended  barbaric  relations  which  your  women 
hold  to  men,  though  greatly  modified  by  civilization,  has 
carried  with  it  enough  of  its  primary  feelings  and  motives 
to  influence  a  large  majority  of  your  matrimonial  engage- 
ments, where  in  truth,  it  may  be  said  that  the  attraction 
is  sensual  to  a  degree  not  willingly  acknowledged,  and 
this  being  more  and  more  the  case  as  you  descend  in  the 
social  scale,  you  will  find  here  your  women  going  through 
life  helplessly  subject  to  the  lingering  brutalism  which 
your  customs  and  laws  enforce.  It  is  from  the  animalism 
of  these  low  life  marriages  that  a  large  sum  of  your 
miseries  and  crimes  are  produced.  Your  inferior  men 
have  but  little  respect  for  those  subject  to  their  power, 
and  in  many  cases  use  a  tyranical  authority  over  their 
defenseless  wives  in  gratification  of  a  mean  instinct  of 
humanity.  It  is  the  only  oppontunity  perhaps  that  brutal 
husbands  enjoy  in  their  whole  lives  to  command  a  grown 
person  who  is  under  an  obligation  by  law,  custom  and 


222  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

religion  to  obey.  Such  a  dangerous  subjection  of  one 
human  being  to  another  could  only  be  excused  by  a 
certainty  that  the  welfare  of  your  society  depended  upon 
it,  when  in  fact  the  condition  is  one  of  the  obstacles  to  a 
better  social  state. 

During  your  barbaric  period,  and  for  a  long  time  there- 
after, women  made  no  protest  against  her  subordinate 
position  in  society.  It  has  been  her  place  for  ages  to 
suffer  more  than  her  share  of  the  pains  and  trials 
of  human  replenishment.  She  has  been  taught  to 
believe  that  this  was  her  only  part  in  the  world's  economy, 
and  men  have  held  her  to  it  by  all  the  force  of  ecclesiastical 
and  secular  bonds.  In  all  your  glorious  modern  achieve- 
ments of  science  and  general  knowledge  until  lately  she 
has  not  even  been  an  invited  spectator.  While  the  world 
in  front  has  been  all  astir  in  the  movements  of  progress, 
she  has  only  been  permitted  to  listen  and  wonder  at  the 
applause  through  the  rear  windows  of  the  nursery  and 
kitchen  ;  not  knowing  what  it  all  meant  and  not  educated 
to  approve,  or  even  to  understand,  its  glorious  import. 
Having  never  been  accustomed  to  think  on  any  great 
subject,  she  has  held  to  her  traditions  after  they  have 
been  discredited  and   denied  by   the   knowledge  of  her 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  223 

times,  and  imparting  them  to  childhood  in  all  their  ancient 
mixture  of  error  has  assisted  to  keep  aljve  those  predju- 
dices  among  you  which  have  so  seriously  blocked  your 
advancement.  This  is  one  of  the  penalties  you  have  paid 
for  your  subjection  of  women.  Those  traditions  to  which 
she  so  defiantly  clings  she  will  never  be  persuaded  to 
discard  in  her  present  dependent  condition.  It  may  be 
said  to  her  honor  that  they  are  mistakenly  pursued  as  the 
only  great  method  within  her  reach  to  indulge  her  concern 
for  human  welfare.  You  must  give  her  new  duties,  and 
arouse  in  her  new  ambitions,  before  you  can  expect  her 
to  take  her  proper  place  beside  man  in  the  march  of 
progress.  It  is  only  within  the  last  two  or  three  genera- 
tions that  a  glint  of  the  outside  enlightenment  has 
penetrated  her  retired  circle,  and  under  its  revelation  she 
is  already  in  some  quarters  demanding  her  rights.  She 
is  beginning  to  understand  that  procreation  is  not  the 
chief  purpose  in  life,  but  only  one  of  its  incidentals  ; 
that  its  processes  from  first  to  last  are  guided  exclusively 
by  animal  instincts,  among  which  men  have  compelled 
her  to  sacrifice  the  best  parts  of  her  life  ;  that  although 
nature  has  imposed  upon  her  the  larger  share  in  these 
processes,  and  all  their  pains,  it  has  also  bestowed  upon 


224  "^^^   ^-^^    FROM    MARS. 

her  capabilities  which  are  clearly  designed  for  more 
exalted  stations  than  mere  breeders  of  men  and  gratifiers 
of  their  animal  pleasures,  so  unduly  stimulated  on  the 
earth  as  the  unintellectual  and  chief  attraction  of  the 
sexes.  You  have  perhaps  but  little  conception  of  how 
much  that  reckless  sexual  impulse  to  matrimony, 
unrestrained  by  your  laws,  and  encouraged  by  your 
religion,  has  swollen  your  ranks  of  poverty,  crime  and 
imbecility.  Your  women  in  their  dependence  and  subjec- 
tion have  but  one  source  of  power  at  their  service,  and 
they  have  used  it  for  all  it  was  worth.  As  a  consequence, 
even  to  the  present  period  of  your  civilization,  qualities 
of  mind  cuts  no  figure  against  the  voluptuous  animalism 
of  person  in  securing  husbands  than  it  did  in  barbaric 
times. 

It  is  the  rarest  thing  among  you  to  find  an  intellectu- 
ally mated  husband  and  wife  qualified  by  equal  education 
and  opportunities  to  be  in  perfect  accord  and  sympathy 
in  the  pursuit  of  high  purposes.  Among  your  higher 
circles  are  to  be  found  occasionally  one  of  these  congenial 
matings,  the  happiest  conditions  of  matrimonial  existence, 
whereby  good  breeding  and  cultivation  a  man  tactily 
ignores  his  superiority  under  your  unjust  usages  ;    but 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  225 

although  the  wife  may  be  in  sympathy  with  the  ambition 
and  purposes  of  her  husband  in  his  intellectual  labors  she 
is  seldom  able  to  assist  him  owing  to  educational  differ- 
ences.    With  us  the  wife  has  more  than  encouragement 
to  offer.     Her  mind  becomes  a  part  of  her  husbands  and 
increases  his  capabiHties.       Many  of  our  highest  achieve- 
ments in  brain  work  are  the  result  of  such  colaboration 
of  two  minds  working  as  one.      The  rare  cases  instanced 
among  you  are  only  to  be  found  in  your  cultivated  circles, 
below  these,  in  all  degress  to  the  bottom  mental  equality 
in  women  is  oftener  the  source  of  contention  than  happi- 
ness, and  you  must  expect  to  have  this  unhappy  condition 
increased   until   you   have   granted   them   their   rightful 
position  in  society.     So  long  as  their  subjection  to  men 
was  hopeless  and  they  were  taught  by  their  theological 
superiors   to   obey    their     husbands,    and   by   the   same 
advisors,    their    separation   denied  or  discouraged,    they 
meekly  submitted  to  abuse  and  suffering  because  without 
a  hope  of  reUef ;  but  as  it  is  becoming  more   and   more 
apparent  to  you  that  the  subjection  of  your  women  is  one 
of  the  many  ancient  fallacies,  the  gradual  reasoning  of 
them  out  of    existence  is   paving  the  way  for   woman's 
liberty. 


226  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

Nature  has  designed  that  women  shall  only  devote  a 
portion  of  her  life  to  maternity  and  its  attendant  duties. 
It  has  set  her  free  of  them  at  a  time  when  her  mind  and 
body  are  fully  capable  of  most  of  the  avocations  of  life. 
Having  fulfilled  these  great  services  to  mankind,  3'ou 
have  ordained  by  custom  and  usage  that  she  shall  remain 
thereafter  a  mere  unconsidered  supernumerary  on  the 
world's  stage.  In  your  lower  circles  she  becomes  a  help- 
less drudge  in  the  interests  of  her  children,  and  in  the 
higher  ones,  either  an  unwelcome  retainer  in  the  house- 
hold of  a  daughter,  or  a  more  or  less  constrained  member 
in  the  family  of  a  son ;  but  in  all  of  these  her  lot  is  a 
happy  one  when  compared  with  her  utter  desolation  in 
the  world  when  her  children  have  departed  from  her  bj^ 
immigration  or  death.  You  have  given  her  no  part  in 
great  aflfairs,  and  she  has  but  little  knowledge  of  or  interest 
in  them.  They  afford  her  no  entertainment  amid  her 
loneHness,  and  by  the  narrow  training  of  her  faculties, 
diverted  only  by  the  minor  things  of  life, — its  personal 
episodes  and  gossiping  incidents — she  lives  out  her 
remaining  purposeless  career.  This  mere  lack  of  mind 
expansion  has  been  cited  against  her  as  a  sex  weakness, 
but  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  if  men  had  been  subject  to 


THE  MAN    PROM    MARS.  227 

such  conditions,  without  her  deep  human  sympathies  and 
her  religion,  they  would  have  fallen  into  complete  mental 
imbecility,  and  if  men  for  all  the  ages  past  had  been 
confined  as  she  had  been  to  duties  requiring  no  high 
attainments,  the  present  balance  of  mind  work  could  not 
be  shown  in  their  favor. 

With  us  maternity  is  not  allowed  to  absorb  the  whole 
of  a  woman's  life.  While  we  accord  to  her,  in  consider- 
ation of  its  responsibilities  and  pains,  an  exemption  from 
all  the  physically  exhausting  occupations,  she  is  encour- 
aged in  all  others  to  which  her  capabilities  are  adapted  ; 
accordingly  with  us  she  is  an  open  competitor  with  men 
in  many  lines  of  business,  some  of  which  are  entirely 
given  over  to  her  by  general  consent.  By  multiplying 
her  opportunities  in  this  way,  she  is  not,  as  with  you  in 
most  cases,  helpless  and  dependent.  She  moves  around 
among  men  as  their  equal,  discussing  matters  of  business 
and  questions  of  public  policy  like  one  of  them.  She 
joins  them  in  out  door  sports  and  athletics,  in  which  she 
often  excels,  and  these  relations  which  the  sexes  hold  to 
each  other,  so  differing  from  yours,  entirely  changes  their 
lines  of  attraction.  In  their  closer  association  with  us 
it  becomes  possible  for  men  and  women   to   thoroughly 


228  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

understand  each  other.  They  do  not  move  in  two 
separate  worlds  as  with  you,  artfully  disguising  their 
characters  and  feelings  from  each  other,  wearing  a  differ- 
ent manner  as  occasions  require  for  deception.  Men 
select  matrimonial  companions  with  us  as  they  choose 
friends  among  themselves,  sympathy  of  feeling  and 
sincerety  being  primary  motives  of  attraction.  It  is  only 
the  general  untruthfulness  of  your  society  carried  into 
matrimony  which  makes  it  in  so  many  cases  unhappy. 
You  have  so  inculcated  the  arts  of  deception  and  false- 
hood into  your  lives  that  they  have  come  at  last  to  be 
openly  pursued  as  legitimate  methods  of  thrift.  One 
could  not  find  a  better  indication  of  the  insincerity  of 
your  society  than  this  metropolitan  journal  on  your  table. 
Here  is  a  strong  editorial  commending  truth,  another  a 
well  written  homily  on  honesty,  and  on  the  connecting 
pages,  authorized  by  the  same  hands,  hundreds  of  adver- 
tisements in  all  shades  of  deception  to  catch  the  unwary. 
With  the  gradual  decadence  of  force  as  a  means  of 
preying  upon  one  another,  you  have  so  cultivated  false- 
hood to  take  its  place  that  the  life  of  each  individual 
among  you  is  kept  constantly  on  the  watch  to  protect 
his  interests.     Hypocrisy  in  religion,    and   deception   in 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  229 

matrimony,  belong  to  those  vices  which  at  present 
disgrace  your  civilization,  and  of  which  your  women 
must  always  suffer  most  so  long  as  you  keep  them 
excluded  from  a  free  intercourse  in  the  world's  affairs. 

The  difference  in  our  treatment  of  women  has  very 
materially  changed  their  points  of  attraction.  While  we 
can  see  no  beauty  in  a  woman  without  enlightenment, 
and  can  find  no  full  companionship  in  her  without  her 
knowledge  of  our  world  and  its  affairs,  these  qualities 
are  not  so  much  considered  by  you.  The  idea  of  a  fitness 
to  live  together,  as  equals  in  everything,  is  not  enter- 
tained, by  either  the  one  or  the  other  of  you,  in  these 
serious  life  contracts.  Your  women  submit  their  depen- 
pence  as  a  virtue,  and  it  is  accepted,  as  well  as  their 
gentleness, — so  often  assumed, — as  a  flattering  offer  to 
men's  vanity  of  power.  There  is  seldom  a  marriage 
among  you  without  the  hidden  satisfaction  of  a  man  with 
his  new  entrance  into  authority.  Any  subsequent 
development  of  individuality  or  independence  of  character 
in  the  women,  must  result  in  discord.  We  meet  each 
other,  in  such  contracts,  on  the  common  ground  of 
equality.  There  are  no  political  or  domestic  rights  which 
both  do  not  equally  enjoy  ;    consequently,  women  are  not 


230  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

tempted  into  blandishments,  and  deceptions,  for  the 
conquests  of  men.  Owing  to  their  independence  and 
helpfulness,  the  marriage  proposal  is  never  accepted  as  an 
extreme  opportunity,  leading  them  to  take  desperate 
chances,  among  conditions  that  are  not  promising  to 
happiness.  This,  you  have  forced  them  to  do,  by  closing 
all  other  doors  against  them. 

You  may  suspect  that  the  admission  of  women  amongst 
us,  in  the  affairs  of  business  and  government,  has 
coarsened  them,  and  given  them  a  character  of  what  is 
known  among  you  as  masculinity.  That  is  not  so. 
Their  amiability  of  manner,  instead  of  being  lost,  is 
conveyed  and  multiplied  among  our  business  methods. 
All  men,  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth,  are 
softened  by  female  association.  Outside  your  regions  of 
degradation,  this  has  been  invariably  the  case,  and  you 
have  proofs  of  it  already  in  the  instances  among  you 
where  women  have  taken  a  hand  in  affairs  outside  the 
household.  When,  by  superior  intelligence  and  force  of 
character,  they  have  made  their  way  to  success  and  fame 
among  the  pursuits  of  men,  they  have  carried  with  them, 
in  every  case,  that  soft  femininity  of  which  they  are 
naturally    endowed.       Your     often    expressed    fears    of 


THE  MAN   FROM   MARS.  231 

hardening,  or  in  some  injuring  them,  by  an  admission  to 
equal  rights,  is  not  entirely  sincere.  To  keep  on  good 
terms  with  them,  and  to  retain  their  approbation,  you 
have  been  led  to  conceal  from  them  many  of  your 
doubtful  business  and  political  methods,  and  you  hesitate 
to  admit  them  into  these  fields  with  you,  not  more  from 
the  dread  of  their  contamination,  than  the  exposure  it 
would  bring  about  of  ways,  which  you  have  heretofore  so 
carefully  concealed.  There  is  many  a  successful  politi- 
cian, or  business  man  among  you,  who  poses  before  his 
wife  and  lady  friends  as  a  hero  of  finance,  or  stateman- 
ship,  who  could  not  do  so,  did  they  share  with  him  a 
knowledge  of  the  incidents  and  manipulations  which 
brought  about  his  success.  Deferance  to  women,  and  a 
regard  for  their  esteem  beyond  that  of  men,  is  a  human 
attribute  apparent  in  your  whole  history.  It  has  been 
the  inspiration  of  your  best  poetry,  and  your  most  stirring 
romance.  In  your  middle  ages,  under  what  is  known 
among  you  as  chivalry,  it  has  led  you  to  deeds  of  virtue 
in  upholding  the  right,  far  beyond  the  prevailing  oppres- 
sion. How  much  the  conduct  of  men  is  modified,  and 
their  evil  tendencies  checked,  by  a  regard  for  the  good 
opinion  of  women,  every  man  can  judge  by  examination 


232  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

of  himself.  In  how  many  dangerous  moments  has 
temptation  been  cast  aside,  by  the  fear  of  evil  report  to 
some  fond  wife,  mother,  sister,  daughter,  or  lady  friends, 
when,  to  sacrifice  the  good  opinion  of  men  alone,  would 
have  been  no  bar  ? 

By  our  greater  attention  to  the  laws  of  health,  and  our 
governmental  restriction  of  unhealthful  marriages,  which 
I  will  describe  to  you  further  on,  we  have  developed  a  far 
greater  average  of  physical  perfection  in  women  that 
exists  with  you.  In  connection  with  this  there  are  other 
advantages  which  our  women  enjoy  beyond  yours,  which 
greatly  enhance  their  personal  attractiveness  and  beauty. 
Their  equal  educational  opportunities  under  our  system, 
of  which  they  are  not  slow  to  avail  themselves,  the  hope- 
fulness and  lack  of  austerity  in  our  religion,  and  the 
interest  they  are  led  to  exhibit  in  great  afiairs,  are  so 
marked  in  their  demeanor  and  physiognomy  as  to  render 
them  very  diflferent  beings.  As  we  estimate  beauty,  you 
have  only  a  women  here  and  there  who  compares  with 
them.  Among  your  mass  of  women,  the  facial  expression 
of  their  long  subjection,  and  its  attendant  conditions  are 
strikingly  observable  to  us.  Features,  no  matter  how 
perfectly   lined,   without    the   light   of    cultivation    and 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  233 

knowledge,  and  which  are  destined  to  become,  in  conju- 
gal association,  clouded  with  the  cares  of  an  overwrought 
maternity,  and  dejected  by  a  threatening  and  superstitious 
religion,  would  have  no  charms  to  any  member  of  our 
society.  With  us,  their  faces  reflect  the  consciousness  of 
absolute  equality,  and  are  illuminated  with  daily  religious 
duties,  which  consist,  in  accordance  with  our  belief,  in 
making  the  ways  of  life  pleasant,  and  its  paths  peaceful, 
and  in  assisting  in  all  things  toward  the  improvement  of 
ourselves  and  society,  in  the  process  of  which  it  is  our 
religion  to  assist,  and  in  the  performance  of  which,  they 
work  with  us  as  equals  to  attain. 


234  THB   MAN    FRO:.I    MARS. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

You  must  have  suspected  before  this  that,  so  far  as  the 
rapid  accumulation  of  wealth  is  concerned,  our  society 
was  in  that  stationary  condition  so  much  dreaded  by 
your  economists  as  the  end  of  all  material  progress.  An 
assumption  among  your  thinkers  that  any  permanent 
diminishment  of  the  production  of  wealth  is  the  fore- 
runner of  disaster  to  society,  is  one  of  those  mistakes 
easily  accounted  for  by  the  surroundings  of  your  present 
stage  of  development.  Your  experience  teaches  you  that 
where  the  wealth  producing  energies  are  in  the  highest 
stage  of  action,  your  civilization  shows  all  its  other 
forces  equally  advancing ;  and  where  on  the  other  hand, 
capital  and  wealth  are  restricted,  there  is  a  state  of  general 
stagnation.  These  opposite  conditions,  however,  you 
will  find  to  be,  more  than  anything  else,  the  result  of 
difference  in  degrees  of  intelligence,  knowledge,  and 
consequently  ambition.  Your  aims,  even  the  higher 
ones,  are  so  indissolubly  connected  with  wealth  as  the 
means  by  which  most  of  them   are   promoted,  that  your 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  235 

incentives  to  acquire  riches  have  become  a  part  of  your 
intellectual  constitution.  Where  the  penalty  of  a 
straightened  financial  condition  is  the  forfeiture  of  every- 
thing which  makes  life  desirable,  even  a  denial  of  the 
opportunities  of  association  with  the  better  class,  and  a 
surrender  of  offspring  to  the  degradation  and  contempt 
which  comes  of  limited  knowledge,  it  may  reasonably  be 
expected  that  the  struggle  for  wealth  would  be  keen. 
Equally  as  an  incentive  also  are  the  innumerable  avenues 
of  gain,  which  are  everywhere  open  for  the  investment  of 
capital,  and  the  remarkable  profits  which  accrue  to  keep 
up  the  spirit  of  money-making  adventure.  You  will 
certainly  agree  with  me  that  this  crushing,  elbowing,  and 
treading  on  each  other's  heels  in  the  attempt  to  get  money 
is  not  the  best  possible  form  or  type  of  society:  more 
especially  since  you  are  not  all  fairly  and  evenly  equipped 
in  this  struggle,  the  mass  of  your  people  reap  no  benefit 
from  it,  and  its  result  is  only  to  double  up  the  incomes  of 
the  few. 

Stagnation  is  not  necessarily  a  condition  of  the 
stationary  state,  as  many  of  your  writers  lead  you  to 
believe.  It  is  merely  a  revolution  in  the  aims  of  society, 
brought  about  by   changes  which   are   inevitable,    and 


236  THE   MAN   PROM   MARS. 

which  your  civilization  is  sooner  or  later  bound  to  reach. 
Kvery  newly  applied  science  and  invention,  and  above  all 
every  acre  of  land  brought  under  cultivation,  render  this 
period  so  much  dreaded  by  you  more  remote ;  but  you 
will  come  to  it  all  the  same.  It  will  merely  be  a  using 
up  of  all  the  resources  of  capital  to  rapidly  multiply 
itself.  During  your  present  progressive  period,  so  far  as 
that  term  is  applicable  to  the  speedy  gathering  in  of 
wealth,  your  society  presents  to  us  an  aspect  of  mercenary 
abandonment  beyond  anything  we  have  ever  experienced 
ourselves,  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  end  that  will 
come  we  look  forward  with  a  high  degree  of  interest  to 
that  time  when  you  will  arrive  at  the  stationary  condition. 
As  you  approach  that  period  where  the  diminished 
profits  of  capital  will  discourage  the  great  activity  and 
aggressiveness  which  now  characterize  it,  some  very  great 
changes  will  gradually  be  brought  about.  Assuming  that 
labor  will  continue  to  enlighten  itself  it  will  slowly 
change  its  relations  with  capital,  so  that  in  the  end 
instead  of  being  below,  as  it  is  now,  it  will  be  on  top,  as 
with  us.  Many  of  the  ways  by  which  wealth  now  multi- 
plies itself  will  be  shut  off,  and  with  its  acquirement  no 
longer  indispensable  to  the  honors  of  life,  and  the  diffi- 


THE    MAN    FROM    MARS.  237 

culties  of  its  attainment  in  any  large  volume  increased, 
society  will  not  be  given  so  intensely  to  its  individual 
accumulation.  Your  intellectual  activities  will  be  turned 
more  in  the  direction  of  other  motives.  To  repair  waste 
and  provide  for  the  necessities  of  the  living  will  be  about 
all  that  is  left  to  employ  your  industries,  and  there  will  be 
enough  for  capital  to  do  within  these  limits  to  moderately 
enlarge  itself;  while  yet  within  this  narrowed  field, 
limited  wealth  will  be  able  to  provide  itself  with  income 
enough  to  sustain  and  reward  habits  of  prudential  saving. 
Although  great  wealth  will  be  exceedingly  difficult  to 
obtain,  a  fair  competency  will  be  within  the  reach  of  all ; 
since  labor  coming  to  the  front,  owing  to  the  weakened 
powers  of  wealth,  will  assume  its  deserving  place  in  the 
forces  of  economy  and  legislation,  and  will  demand  and 
receive  a  fairer  share  of  the  profits  of  industry. 

After  the  advance  of  civilization  and  knowledge  beyond 
a  certain  period,  the  ambitions  and  necessities  of  a  people 
will  furnish  abundant  incentives  to  keep  society  in  a 
state  of  activity.  The  energies  of  life  are  stimulated,  not 
so  much  by  the  large  occasional  rewards  which  come  to 
a  few,  like  prizes  in  a  lottery,  as  the  steady  and  certain 
remuneration  of  each  day's  output  of  action  to  all.     The 


238  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

ability  to  obtain  from  industry  a  considerable  margin 
beyond  the  daily  expenses  of  life  is  sufficient  to  keep  alive 
the  mental  and  physical  energies,  and  is  certain  to  bring 
about  that  general  state  of  hopefulness,  which  more  than 
anything  else  promotes  thrift  and  stimulates  ambition. 

It  may  be  somewhat  at  variance  with  your  views  of 
political  economy,  to  believe  that  any  reduction  of  the 
power  and  value  of  capital  will  not  in  a  corresponding 
degree  depress  labor.  You  must  bear  in  mind,  however, 
that  the  stationary  state,  as  exemplified  by  our  society, 
differs  from  your  progressive  condition,  not  in  the  lesser 
abundance  of  capital,  but  in  its  better  diffusion,  more 
dependent  relations,  and  smaller  comparative  profits.  It 
follows  from  this  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  it  requires 
the  possession  of  a  larger  amount  of  the  products  of 
labor  to  bring  about  that  condition  of  life  known  as  a 
competency  than  it  does  with  you.  But  by  a  well  deter- 
mined arrangement  in  all  ways  in  favor  of  those  who  toil, 
by  which  a  fair  margin  is  secured  between  income  and 
expense,  the  coveted  independence  is  always  within 
reach. 

Under  our  system,  capital  becoming  diffused  among  the 
masses  in  comparatively  small  portions,  and  having  no 


The  man  from  mars.  239 

such  extraordinary  uses,  nor  such  high  rates  of  interest 
as  with  you,  it  assumes  its  natural  place  as  an  adjunct  to 
all  the  enterprises  of  labor.  All  our  factories  are  conse- 
quently carried  on  by  co-operation.  No  such  a  thing  is 
known  on  our  planet  as  the  owner  of  a  manufacturing 
establishment  depressing  at  his  will  and  pleasure  the  pay 
of  perhaps  a  whole  community  of  working  people.  When 
an  establishment  is  required  for  the  manufacture  of  some 
product  in  demand,  our  workmen  undertake  it  as  a  busi- 
ness belonging  wholly  to  themselves,  and  there  is  never 
any  lack  of  means  among  them  to  do  it. 

The  utter  helpless  condition  of  your  workmen,  as  a 
class,  is  not  entirely  owing  to  their  enforced  scant  share  in 
the  profits  of  industry.  Whoever  among  them,  by  greater 
abstinence  or  otherwise,  succeeds  in  saving  any  consider- 
able portion  of  his  earnings,  hastens  either  to  change  his 
situation  for  that  of  employer,  where  self-interest  inclines 
him  to  favor  low  wages,  or  to  seek  among  the  greater 
encouragements  outside  a  change  of  occupation.  By  this 
process  capital  and  labor  are  constantly  being  divorced, 
and  the  ranks  of  your  workmen  are  left  to  contain  only 
those  whose  necessities  hold  them  there. 

In  the  condition  of  things  with  us,  bestowing  upon 


240  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

labor  all  the  emoluments  of  industry,  it  becomes  the  most 
advantageous  pursuit  of  life.  With  wages  at  a  uniform 
and  fixed  sum,  from  which  there  can  be  no  deviation 
except  to  increase,  the  working  man  proceeds  to  lay  by 
his  surplus,  until,  in  a  reasonable  time,  it  can  be  made  to 
do  service  in  adding  to  the  fruits  of  his  toil. 

In  our  society  there  is  no  possibility,  and  no  one  has 
hopes  of  gaining  money  by  chance.  We  hold  it  to  be  a 
demoralizing  evil  that  wealth  should  be  obtained  without 
industry.  The  quality  of  mind  which  you  honor  under 
the  name  of  shrewdness,  and  which  seldom  hesitates  to 
profit  by  the  losses  and  even  the  miseries  of  others,  would 
find  life  a  burden  on  account  of  the  odium  attached,  in 
any  community  on  our  planet.  The  privilege  to  build  up 
an  individual  fortune,  by  taking  from  the  substance  of  the 
whole  people  in  any  unlimited  degree  which  an  unscrupu- 
lous ingenuity  can  devise,  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of 
your  civilization.  To  this  general  license,  with  its  very 
small  limitation,  is  to  be  ascribed  most  of  your  social 
miseries.  The  lessons  presented  to  your  youth  at  the  very 
first  glance  at  the  affairs  of  life  are  calculated  to  impress 
them  with  the  belief  that  success  is  not  so  much  for  the 
strong  and  considerate,  as  it  is  for  the  wary  and  cunning; 


THB   MAN   FROM   MARS.  24I 

and  that  the  business  of  creating  wealth  is  of  the  slightest 
importance,  when  compared  with  the  many  successful  arts 
and  schemes  for  capturing  it  after  its  production.  The 
example  is  witnessed  everywhere  among  you  of  money- 
making  without  loss  of  honor  or  respect,  by  the  method 
of  drawing  from  others,  by  taking  advantage  of  their 
necessities,  excessive  and  unfair  portions  of  their  substance 
for  some  sort  of  service  rendered.  The  consequence  is 
that  life  with  you  is  constantly  renewed,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  persons  with  more  or  less  inherited  capital,  who  are 
educated  to  believe  that  existence  is  a  game,  whose  win- 
ning instances  are  the  best  guides  to  follow;  and  on  the 
other  by  the  great  mass  of  hereditary  toilers  who  submit 
themselves  as  victims  under  sheer  force  of  necessity  and 
usage.  This  state  of  your  civilization  brings  into  play 
many  of  your  lower  feelings,  as  indispensable  instruments 
of  success.  When  selfishness  is  the  chief  promoter  of 
thrift,  practical  charity  is  only  aroused  by  unusual  provo- 
cation. The  miseries  of  existence  are  unseen  and  unfelt 
by  others  than  the  suflferers  themselves  among  you,  just 
as  your  senses  become  oblivious  to  the  presence  of  dis- 
turbing influences  which  you  find  it  unprofitable  to  sup- 
press.    The  necessity  for  each  one  looking  out  for  himself 


242  THE  MAN  FROM   MARS. 

in  your  fierce  battles  of  life  makes  him  unmindful  of 
others.  Yet  benevolence  dwells  within  all  your  hearts  as 
a  divine  attribute,  which  cannot  be  wholly  destroyed,  no 
matter  how  neglected  its  cultivation.  Like  the  retarded 
germination  of  seed  in  a  too  deeply  surmounting  soil,  it 
comes  to  the  light  among  j'-ou  here  and  there,  under  favor- 
able conditions,  with  an  increasing  frequency  which  reveals 
your  destiny  as  unerringly  as  the  golden  horizon  presages 
the  coming  of  the  sun. 

The  difference  in  the  degree  by  which  each  individual 
holds  the  common  welfare  in  comparison  with  his  own, 
marks  the  stage  of  progress  towards  perfection  in  society. 
You  hold  within  yourselves,  by  a  divine  provision,  the 
elements  to  this  end.  Your  history  is  full  of  instances  to 
prove  that  self-sacrifice  is  an  act  which  inspires  a 
greater  commendation  than  any  other.  All  your  normal 
mental  organizations  are  endowed  with  the  propensity  to 
benefit  others,  which  only  the  conditions  of  your  society 
circumscribe  by  a  conflict  of  interest.  What  is  now  in 
your  higher  faculties,  during  your  present  development, 
a  pleasure,  will  become  a  passion  by  further  progress  and 
cultivation,  and,  by  a  still  more  extended  pursuit,  a 
necessity  to  the  tranquility  and  enjoyment  of  your  lives. 


THE  MAN   FROM   MARS.  243 

Filial  and  parental  love  from  mere  instincts  have  grown 
among  you  to  be  the  most  gratifying  of  inclinations. 
Sexual  aflSnity,  from  its  origin  of  brutal  dersire,  has  been 
transformed,  in  your  higher  circles,  to  a  pure  and  tender 
sentiment  of  disinterested  regard.  Not  long  ago  your 
lunatics  were  chained  to  stakes  like  beasts.  Your  infec- 
ted were  left  to  die  upon  the  roadsides.  Your  infirm  were 
shut  from  sight,  consumed  with  vermin  among  their  rags. 
You  house,  clothe,  and  care  for  all  these  now  with  almost 
the  solicitude  that  parents  bestow  upon  children.  If  you 
should  submit  yourselves  now  for  a  time  to  the  presence 
of  these  old  inhumanities,  and  observe  their  disturbing 
effects  upon  the  happiness  of  your  lives,  it  would  be  a 
fair  measurement  of  your  progress  toward  the  stationary 
state. 

Supposing  yourself  to  be  one  of  an  audience  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  pleasure  from  a  performance 
on  the  stage,  your  delight  would,  in  a  large  degree, 
depend  upon  the  manifestations  of  approval  surrounding 
you.  Any  expression  of  dissatisfaction  would  spoil  your 
enjoyment,  no  matter  upon  what  it  might  be  founded. 
It  might  arise,  for  instance,  from  unfair  opportunities  of 
view,  or  from  the  usurped  privilege  of  some  to  obstruct 


244  'THE   ^^"^   FROM    MARS. 

the  vision  of  others.  Your  inclinations,  arising  from  no 
higher  motive  than  self  interest,  would  lead  you  to  assist 
in  bringing  about  that  state  of  general  satisfaction  which 
is  indispensable  to  your  own  comfort  and  happiness. 
This  illustrates  one  of  the  motives  which,  in  our  stage  of 
development,  impels  us  to  arrange  that,  so  far  possible, 
every  individual  shall  enjoy  equal  privileges  in  society. 
Happiness  is  simply  not  possible  without  it. 

Your  moralists  might  argue  that  to  close  and  intimate 
a  sympathy  with  the  misfortunes  of  others  would  keep 
us  so  constantly  unhappy  as  to  make  life  unendurable. 
In  answer  to  this,  you  have  only  to  consider  that  if  you 
separate  from  all  your  ills  those  which  either  directly  or 
remotely  are  brought  upon  you  by  your  imperfect  social 
state,  there  are  but  few  left  besides  death  and  its  attendant 
sorrows.  And  of  these  few  entirely  comprised  under  the 
heads  of  sickness  and  accidents,  there  is  a  possibility  of 
their  greater  diminishment  by  better  modes  of  life. 

That  you  are  slowly  and  gradually  moving  towards  the 
stationary  condition,  unmistakable  evidence  proves. 
Material  as  well  as  spiritual  indications  confirm  this 
belief.  You  can  easily  observe  that  wealth  in  the  hands 
of  the  few  is  losing  its  opportunities  for  rapid  increase. 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  245 

In  your  oldest  advanced  regions  it  has  already  worked  out 
it  resources  to  the  extent  of  endeavoring  to  find  abroad 
occasions  for  profitable  use.  But  for  the  monopoly  of 
land,  which  enables  it  to  extract  from  industry  an  amount 
for  its  services  out  of  all  proportion  with  its  value  else- 
where, it  would  have  been  much  further  advanced 
towards  the  stationary  state. 

One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  opposing  your  approach 
towards  the  perfect  society  is  your  propensity  to  theorize 
and  speculate  upon  matters  which  it  is  not  given  you  to 
know.  We  have  a  saying  that  he  who  gets  his  feet  in 
the  air  is  lost.  We  mean  by  that  to  convey  the  idea,  that 
all  speculation  not  founded  on  positive  knowledge  is  so 
utterly  worthless,  that  any  indulgence  therein  is  useless 
to  society.  The  opinion  is  unchallenged  among  us,  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Earth  are  too  prone  to  get  their  feet 
in  the  air.  And  yet  the  very  ease  by  which  this  misfor- 
tune is  accomplished  among  you  is  a  proof  of  your  good- 
ness. Your  inclination  to  virtue  is  your  weak  side  of 
approach,  and  all  your  inherent  and  intuitive  charity, 
which  might  during  all  these  centuries  have  been  exer- 
cised upon  yourselves,  has  been  to  a  great  extent  wasted 
upon  your  schemes  of  salvation,  in  which  you  have  no 


246  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

assurance  whatever  but  the  wild  promises  of  imagination. 
When  you  come  fully  to  understand  that  happiness,  true 
prosperity,  virtue,  and  even  beauty  are  but  synonyms 
of  truth,  and  that  misery,  crime,  misfortune,  and  ugliness 
are  but  other  names  for  falsehood,  you  will  no  longer  have 
any  dread  or  hesitation  to  search  for  that  verity  which 
destroys  old  beliefs,  even  though  that  search  melts  into 
air  your  most  cherished  traditions.  You  come  to  under- 
stand after  a  while  that  a  truth  can  disseminate  nothing 
but  good  ;  and  that  a  falsehood,  no  matter  how  venerable 
with  age,  nor  how  respectable  by  adoption,  can  generate 
little  else  than  evil.  Your  creeds  have  attracted  you  and 
plowed  deep  into  your  aflfections,  because  in  them  is 
gathered  from  yourselves  the  divine  sentiments  of  good- 
ness, out  of  which  they  are  all  robed  in  a  pretended 
monopoly.  Your  virtues  are  brought  into  service  within 
their  narrow  limits,  and  your  energies  and  substance 
consumed  in  the  work  of  enlarging  their  influence,  while 
the  more  fruitful  material  for  your  charities  lies  neglected 
in  the  evils  and  miseries  of  your  society. 

The  Earth  is  your  dominion.  Tread  firmly  upon  it. 
Remember  it  has  been  put  into  your  keeping,  and  that 
your  people  are  entirely  responsible  for  its  social  condition. 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  247 

He  who  assists  to  improve  that,  serves  the  Deity  better 
than  he  who  spends  his  life  in  genuflections  and  prayers. 
When  you  look  around  among  the  wretched  criminals 
among  you,  punished  and  unpunished,  and  the  poverty- 
stricken,  and  the  sad-eyed,  neglected  children  ;  see  the 
unsuppressed  temptations  to  evil,  the  unrecognized  virtue, 
and  the  uneven  opportunities  for  individual  advancement, 
you  should  bear  in  mind  that  all  these  are  but  evidences 
of  the  violation  of  the  trust  imposed  in  you  by  the  divine 
intelligence.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  spectacle  upon  the 
Earth  that  inspires  more  pity  among  the  inhabitants  of 
Mars,  than  the  constant  waste  of  your  best  parts  in 
submitting  yourselves  to  the  impositions  of  your  seers, 
who  lead  you  away  from  your  duties,  under  the  theory 
that  the  Earth  is  merely  a  battle  ground  and  field  of  con- 
quest for  the  perpetuation  of  their  doctrines,  all  else  upon 
it  being  blank  vanities.  They  have  kept  you  away  from 
the  true  business  of  your  lives,  and  have  mesmerized  you, 
alternately  terrifying  and  delighting  you  by  unreal 
fancies  ;  now  exhibiting  to  you  a  paradise  and  at  another 
time  a  nightmare.  They  have  involved  you  in  a  perpet- 
ual shadow,  discouraging  you  of  all  hopes  of  brightness 
until  your  celestial   birth.       By   exhibiting   only    your 


248  THE   MAN  FROM   MARS. 

grosser  parts,  and  threatening  the  vengeance  of  an  austere 
and  capricious  god  of  their  own  imaginary  creation,  they 
both  degrade  you  and  Delittle  your  conceptions  of  the 
Deity.  You  could  bend  your  faces  upward  with  a  better 
sincerity,  if,  instead  of  following  phantoms  all  these  ages, 
with  your  feet  in  the  air,  you  could  show  a  truer  inter- 
pretation of  the  divine  purpose  in  establishing  a  happier 
and  more  perfect  dwelling  together. 


THB   MAN   FROM   MARS.  249 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

I  RESIDE  within  a  city  of  Mars  which,  in  point  of 
population  and  grandeur,  is  one  of  the  first  on  our  planet. 
In  accordance  with  our  custom  of  designating  such  places 
with  names  of  quality,  it  would  be  known  in  your  lan- 
guage as  the  city  of  Good  Will.  As  it  is  the  type  of  all 
others,  you  are  already  informed  of  a  few  of  its  general 
features.  I  will,  however,  give  you  some  fuller  descrip- 
tion of  our  society  and  surroundings,  in  only  the  hasty 
and  imperfect  manner  which  this  opportunity  affords. 

With  much  the  same  feelings  and  inclinations  as  yours, 
and  with  that  love  and  cultivation  of  the  beautiful  which 
we  have  pursued  as  an  element  of  our  religion,  uninter- 
rupted as  with  you  by  those  delusions  which  destroy  art, 
we  have  advanced  much  beyond  you  in  that  direction. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  as  a  coincidence  proving  the  unity  of 
all  intelligence  within  the  universe,  that  we  have  designed 
an  architecture  not  unlike  that  of  your  ancient  Greece. 
Our  isolated  exteriors,  such  as  villas  and  country  resi- 
dences, bear  a  close  resemblance  to  some  of  your  ancient 


250  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

Styles.  Ill  our  cities  we  have  been  obliged  to  conform 
to  the  condition  of  aerial  navigation,  which  has  greatly 
restricted  our  elevated  ornamentation,  and  forced  upon  us 
a  system  of  curves  instead  of  angles  in  our  projections. 

One  of  the  most  notable  differences  between  your 
construction  and  ours  is  the  material  and  form  of  our 
roofs,  which  are  uniformly  of  solid  glass,  and  dome 
shaped.  The  substance  is  laid  on  in  a  plastic  state, 
hardens  in  a  short  time,  is  purely  transparent,  and  as 
difficult  to  fracture  as  stone.  The  upper  story  of  every 
house  becomes  by  this  method  the  chief  source  of  light 
for  its  interior,  and  by  ingeniously  formed  horizontal 
curtains  can  be  darkened  at  will.  We  believe  this  to  be 
one  of  the  most  important  sanitary  arrangements  we 
possess,  and  to  which  may  be  chiefly  ascribed  the  health 
and  vigor  of  our  bodies.  In  these  bright  upper  apart- 
ments we  bathe  ourselves  in  the  sun,  and  enjoy  the  con- 
stant bloom  and  fragrance  of  flowers. 

By  a  natural  adaption,  these  glass  roofs  have  become 
inseparably  connected  with  our  religious  lives.  Our 
interest  in  the  wonderful  nightly  exhibitions  which  they 
permit  is  increased  by  the  general  knowledge  we  have 
cultivated  of  the  character  and  motions  of  the  heavenly 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  25 1 

bodies.  As  a  consequence,  there  are  but  few  among  us 
who  cannot  describe  the  paths  and  directions  of  the 
planets  ;  and  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  a  majority  of  our 
people  can  compute  the  periods  of  opposition  and  con- 
junction between  them.  No  other  exhibition  so  feeds 
and  stimulates  our  religious  impulses,  as  the  grand 
display  of  divine  power  in  the  unceasing  motions  of  the 
spheres.  We  bring  the  spectacle  within  our  households, 
and  dwell  with  it.  It  is  the  altar  upon  which  we  worship 
the  great  unseen. 

Each  block  of  buildings  is  surmounted  by  a  single  roof 
of  the  transparent  character  I  have  described.  In  this 
way  we  have  utilized  all  the  space  for  dwelling  or  busi- 
ness purposes,  and  prevented  those  unsightly  back  yards 
which  disfigure  the  cities  of  the  Earth  and  lower  their 
sanitary  condition.  Usually  there  are  no  partition  walls 
except  in  the  lower  stories,  and  these  lofty  upper  apart- 
ments, especially  if  over  dwellings,  have  their  flattened 
dome-shaped  roofs  supported  by  a  series  of  columns  and 
arches  artistically  wrought  and  decorated,  and  their 
interiors  adorned  with  growing  flower  and  statuary,  so  as 
to  furnish  a  delightful  resort,  convenient  to  the  neighbor- 
hood and  open  to  all. 


252  THE  MAN   FROM   MARS. 

These  extensive  halls  are  a  necessity  to  the  social 
character  of  our  people.  You  may  imagine  how  an  inter- 
course based  on  perfect  equality,  and  with  the  paramount 
idea  of  obtaining  pleasure  by  bestowing  it,  would  have 
its  enjoyments  enlarged  by  the  unrestricted  and  unse- 
lected  numbers  participating.  Music  and  dancing  are 
deUghts  with  us  beyond  your  experience.  We  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  atmospheric  conditions  and  a  degree  of 
gravitating  force  which  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  heighten 
these  enjoyments.  Our  voice  tones,  seldom  without  culti- 
vation, acquire  an  energy  and  brilliancy  in  our  atmos- 
phere unknown  to  you.  A  combination  of  trained  voices 
with  us  is  so  vastly  superior  to  instrumental  music,  that 
the  latter  is  not  known  except  as  a  novelty.  Since  the 
force  of  gravity  is  less  with  us  our  bodies  are  much 
lighter  than  yours,  and  our  motions  are  consequently 
more  airy  and  graceful.  In  movements  like  dancing 
there  is  less  muscular  energy  expended,  and  a  greater 
pleasure  attained. 

Under  these  vast  transparent  domes,  looking  out  upon 
the  universe  of  planets  and  stars,  we  dance,  and  sing  our 
hymns  of  praise  to  the  Deity,  asking  for  nothing,  but 
uniting  our  voices  in  the  rhythms  of  poetry  and  music  in 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  253 

a  thanksgiving  for  the  pleasures  of  life,  and  for  that 
guidance  which  has  directed  us  clear  of  the  deadly  super- 
stitions of  our  neighboring  planet,  and  for  that  intelli- 
gence which  has  led  us  to  find  our  true  religious  duties  in 
exercising  our  better  impulses  within  our  own  fields  of 
action. 

Over  our  business  quarters  these  upper  stories,  less 
ornate  and  well  ventilated,  serve  the  purposes  of  factories 
and  work  shops,  where  the  sun's  rays,  not  so  intense  as 
with  you,  owing  to  our  greater  distance  from  it,  are  let  in 
to  brighten  the  hours  of  those  who  toil.  Among  these 
locations  of  industry  are  conditions  that  would  surprise 
you.  There  is  the  indispensable  anteroom  beside  the 
entrance  of  each,  where,  enjoying  the  comfortable  furni- 
ture, may  be  found  a  number  of  operatives  waiting  for 
the  beginning  of  the  three-hour  shift.  They  are  all  on 
terms  of  easy  familiarity,  yet  among  them  may  be  found 
the  president  of  the  grand  council,  who  manages  the 
affairs  of  the  city,  the  lecturer  who  presides  at  the  temple, 
and  other  prominent  worthies  mingled  with  the  others 
who  have  acheived  no  honors  beyond  the  work  bench. 
The  person  who  is  most  compUmented  among  the  number 
is  the  one  who  has  just  been«  granted  an»  advance  of  one 


254  '^^B   ^-^N    FROM    MARS. 

grade  in  the  skill  of  his  calling.  He  has  attained  what 
would  be  an  equivalent  in  your  society  to  the  honors  of  a 
collegiate  degree,  with  the  very  material  difference  in  his 
favor,  that  for  years  to  come,  and  perhaps  as  long  as  he 
lives,  his  income  is  permanently  increased  by  an  enhanced 
value  to  his  labor.  No  competition  will  ever,  under  our 
system,  render  valueless  this  achievement  of  his. 

Your  degrees  of  learning  are  but  empty  honors 
compared  with  this  profitable  distinction.  You  insure  no 
certain  rewards  for  that  acquirement  of  knowledge  which 
has  won  its  parchment  of  approval,  and  the  holder  enjoys 
only  the  slim  advantage  which  his  certificate  secures. 
His  degree  wins  him  no  bread,  and  the  honors  of  his 
career  rest  uncertain,  with  all  his  struggles  ahead.  Our 
workman,  at  each  step  of  his  advancement,  increases  his 
income,  under  the  assurance  and  protection  of  our  indus- 
trial methods,  with  the  certainty  and  stability  of  a 
government  pension. 

But  while  we  have  found  it  wise  to  honor  and  protect 
manual  skill,  the  physical  strength  of  our  people  has  for 
many  ages  been  a  subject  of  general  attention.  Among 
the  productions  of  the  Supreme  Author  which  he  is 
engaged  in  perfecting  and  beautifying,  the  first  in  impor- 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  255 

tauce  on  your  planet  is  surely  man  himself,  as  a  being 
animal  as  well  as  mental.  As  an  indolent,  weak  and 
passive  body  is  usually  associated  with  a  mind  of  the  same 
character,  it  is  only  by  the  cultivation  of  both  together 
that  society  improves.  You  have  evidences  enough  of 
the  inseparable  connection  between  mental  and  physical 
energy,  and  yet  your  cultivation  of  the  body  has  engaged 
but  little  attention.  It  seems  to  us  one  of  the  most  seri- 
ous objections  to  your  religious  abstractions,  that  the 
spirit  of  all  of  them  tends  to  deny  or  belittle  the  great 
service  of  healthy  sinews  and  nerves  in  the  progress  of 
social  improvement. 

You  will  find  intellectual  stagnation  everywhere  upon 
the  face  of  the  Earth,  where  incentives  to  muscular  action 
are  suppressed  from  whatever  cause,  and  you  know  by 
experience  that  the  decay  of  mental  vigor,  by  a  release 
from  the  necessity  of  bodily  exercise,  has  obliged  the 
brawn  and  muscle  of  your  age,  in  more  than  one  instance, 
to  come  to  the  front  in  the  management  of  affairs. 

Civilization,  at  a  certain  degree  of  its  progress,  is 
expected  to  assume  duties  which  until  then,  have  been 
faithfully  performed  by  nature  alone.  Like  a  good 
mother  she  has  provided,  in  your  primitive   state,  against 


256  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

the  degeneration  of  your  bodies  by  the  operation  of  her 
universal  law,  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  In  your  social 
betterment  you  can  reasonably  be  expected  to  provide  for 
yourselves  some  substitute  to  maintain  that  standard  of 
hardihood  and  strength  which  had  formerly  been  kept  up 
by  your  primitive  struggles  for  existence. 

Your  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  heredity  has  enabled 
you  to  improve  upon  the  forms  and  quahties  of  all  those 
creatures  which  have  been  taken  from  their  native  wilds 
to  serve  your  uses ;  and  yet,  with  a  fatal  inconsistency, 
you  consign  your  own  bodies  to  a  carelessness  of  pro- 
creation which  totally  ignores  all  well  known  methods  of 
improvement.  The  spectacle  is  common  among  you,  of 
the  skilled  breeder  straining  his  knowledge  to  remedy 
defects  of  form  in  the  lower  animals  in  his  possession, 
while  he  and  his  progeny  exhibit,  in  their  own  bodies, 
without  concern  or  attention,  the  very  same  physical 
infirmities  which  he  had  so  successfully  banished  in  his 
brutes  by  parental  selection. 

The  neglect  of  your  opportunities  in  this  direction  is 
more  surprising,  when  it  is  considered  how  greatly  you 
are  suffering  from  it ;  for  although  the  achievement  of  a 
more  general  perfection  of  form  and  strength  is  invaluable 


the;  man  from  mars.  257 

to  you,  as  laying  the  foundation  of  a  larger  average  of 
mental  power  and  activity,  yet  this  is  not  more  important 
to  your  society  than  the  easy  and  certain  eradication  by 
judicious  matings  of  the  most  persistent  and  fatal  of  your 
diseases.  It  is  appaling  to  estimate  the  sum  of  human 
misery  perpetually  transmitted  congenitally  in  diseased 
tissues  and  functional  defects. 

This  evil,  which  has  prevailed  among  you  until  your 
bodily  ills  are  almost  innumerable,  you  have  been  taught 
to  consider  as  an  arrangement  of  the  divine  will,  and  you 
rest  yourselves  helplessly  in  the  belief  that  its  endurance 
without  remedy  is  the  penalty  of  life  ;  when,  in  fact,  it  is 
perpetuated  chiefly  by  that  over-powering  individual  self- 
ishness which  makes  no  account  of  the  general  good 
while  gratifying  sentiments  of  pleasure,  or  greed. 

I  have  already  drawn  your  observation  to  that  infallible 
test  which  marks  the  progress  of  social  development — 
the  average  willingness  of  attention  and  sacrifice  of  indi- 
vidual interests  to  the  common  welfare.  From  our 
achievements  in  that  direction  already  described,  you  may 
easily  imagine  that  we  have  not  neglected  the  opportunity 
to  improve  and  benefit  society  by  the  observance  of  some 
of  nature's  simplest  and  most  easily  applied  laws. 


258  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

We  are  not  embarassed  as  you  would  be  by  protests  of 
an  infringement  of  personal  liberty,  because  we  have 
arrived  beyond  that  stage  where  law  and  its  enforcement 
are  required.  Official  recommendation  supported  by  a 
united  public  opinion,  without  any  penalty  for  non-com- 
pliance except  the  general  condemnation,  is  our  only 
resort  in  directing  the  conduct  of  our  people.  Under  such 
a  system,  any  violation  of  individual  rights  is  impossible. 
It  is  enough  in  our  society  to  determine  that  a  measure  is 
for  the  common  good,  to  secure  its  adoption  without 
dissent. 

Accordingly,  it  comes  within  the  province  of  our 
Government  Health  Department  to  direct,  and  in  some 
degree  supervise,  those  marital  engagements  out  of 
which  our  numbers  are  so  constantly  replenished.  This 
important  business  is  closely  associated  with  measures 
designed  in  other  ways  to  promote  our  health,  and  may 
be  said  to  begin  at  the  birth  of  every  child.  Each  infant 
is  carefully  examined  by  medical  experts,  and  registered. 
Every  peculiarity  or  bodily  defect  is  recorded,  and  rules 
of  management  furnished,  as  remedies,  if  found  neces- 
sary. Every  person,  young  or  old,  is  required  periodi- 
cally to  pass  a  like  examination.     The  personal  health 


the;  man  prom  mars.  259 

register  is  open  to  all,  and  the  bodily  condition  of  every 
inhabitant  may  be  in  that  way  ascertained.  None  fail  to 
avail  themselves  of  information  so  greatly  concerning 
themselves.  Incipient  diseases  are  in  a  vast  number  of 
cases  remedied  by  this  discovery  of  their  unsuspected 
presence,  and  the  habits  of  life  are  often  changed  in  time 
to  head  off  some  latent  malady,  which  in  its  early  stages, 
nothing  but  medical  science  could  reveal. 

The  system  establishes  a  public  record  of  the  physical 
standing,  either  in  lurking  disease  or  deformity,  of  every 
individual ;  and  as  it  is  made  the  duty  of  our  health 
department  to  declare  its  judgment  of  approval  in  every 
marriage  contract,  we  have  no  transmitted  disease  or 
deformities  of  body  running  through  generations,  and 
multiplying  the  miseries  of  life,  as  you  have.  We  have 
long  ago  stamped  out  by  this  method  three-fourths  of  the 
diseases  which  are  nourished  by  the  habits  of  civilization. 
By  this  means  we  have  secured  a  race  of  men  and  women 
so  physically  perfect  as  to  cause  existence  to  be  accepted 
as  a  grateful  patrimony.  You  have  interrogated  nature 
in  her  laws  of  development,  and  in  her  processes  of  modi- 
fication both  in  forms  and  qualities  of  things,  and  with  a 
knowledge  so  acquired,  you  have   cultivated  a  world  of 


26o  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

animal  and  vegitable  organisms  to  your  better  service. 
We  have  done  that,  too  ;  but  we  have  accompHshed  in 
that  line  something  of  incomparably  more  importance  to 
us,  in  advancing  together  by  due  cultivation  and  care  our 
animal  as  well  as  our  intellectual  selves. 

You  cannot  fail  to  discover  in  this,  one  of  the  effects  of 
that  striking  divergence  between  our  civilization  and 
yours,  due  to  widely  different  interpretations  of  the  divine 
will.  We  look  upon  our  planet  with  all  its  appurtenances 
as  a  bequest  which  has  been  delivered  into  our  keeping 
for  that  assistance  in  progression  so  plainly  the  best  and 
most  exalted  business  of  our  lives,  and  so  unmistakably 
pleasing  to  the  Supreme  Author  that  every  degree  of  its 
accomplishment  is  rewarded  by  signs  of  his  favor.  From 
our  better  demonstrated  spiritual  belief,  we  derive  the 
inspiration  to  increase  and  bestow  upon  each  other  the 
best  things  of  life  ;  while  you,  under  religious  promptings 
from  the  same  high  source,  condemn  yourselves  to  absti- 
nence and  austerity.  You  so  misconceive  the  true 
relations  between  spiritual  and  material  forces,  that 
instead  of  regarding  each  as  the  nursery  and  builder-up 
of  the  other,  you  have  devised  a  theory  which  brings 
them  into  antagonism  as  diverse  influences ;    the  exercise 


THE   MAN   PROM   MARS.  26 1 

of  material  concerns,  as  you  assume,  tending  to  lead  you 
away  from  the  divinity. 

The  effect  of  this  mistaken  view  of  life  is  plainly 
to  be  seen  in  your  society  and  surroundings.  Your 
material  progression,  deprived  of  the  religious  impulse 
and  enthusiasm,  and  depending  wholly  upon  the  lower 
faculty  of  self-gain,  advances  by  slow  degrees,  frequently 
retrogresses,  and  is  not  secure  of  a  total  relapse  under  so 
mercenary  a  moving  power.  Your  forward  movement, 
instead  of  being  compact  and  co-operative  like  ours,  drags 
along  fitfully  and  laboriously,  marshaled  alone  by  a 
struggling  influence  here  and  there,  under  the  dead 
weight  of  an  indifferent  and  self  absorbed  multitude,  and 
in  open  conflict  with  a  host  of  disturbed  traditions. 

Your  doctrine  of  the  absolute  divorce  of  spiritual  and 
material  interests,  by  wasting  your  best  parts  in  the 
service  of  the  world-condemning  deity  of  your  imagina- 
tion, and  surrendering  your  temporal  affairs  to  the  sole 
exercise  of  your  lower  sentiments  and  feelings,  has  spread 
its  dire  effects,  and  may  be  traced  in  every  phase  of  your 
society.  Out  of  it  comes  that  singular  disregard  for  each 
other  in  all  things  except  the  spiritual,  and  that  perverted 
estimate  of  goodness,  which  has  consigned  your  science 


262  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

and  learning  with  their  influences,  together  with  your 
whole  world  of  industry,  to  places  where  unassisted  and 
unencouraged  they  must  work  out  their  own  doubtfully 
admitted  and  tardy  rewards ;  while  your  best  enthusiasm 
and  most  active  morality  is  led  to  waste  among  your 
many  unreasoning  schemes  of  salvation. 

What  but  this  unwarranted  dissociation  of  spirit  and 
matter,  of  the  body  and  soul,  of  your  physical  and  intel- 
lectual parts,  regarding  one  as  the  degrading  yokemate  of 
the  other  instead  of  the  counterpart  and  co-worker,  has 
taken  all  the  heart  out  of  your  lives,  hidden  from  you  the 
moral  possibilities  within  your  worldly  reach,  and  reduced 
the  only  existence  you  are  so  far  called  upon  to  improve 
into  a  dead  and  useless  hibernation  of  your  divinest  facul- 
ties? What  more  readily  excuses  and  defends  your 
indifference  to  the  hard  lines  of  human  labor,  and  your 
toleration  of  a  system  which  dooms  most  of  you  to 
perpetual  dependence,  than  those  mossgrown  traditions 
which,  from  their  selected  quarters  among  the  supernatu- 
ral and  unseen,  are  not  disturbed  or  interested  by  your 
social  wrongs,  and  which  in  truth  find  their  best  patron- 
age and  most  profitable  employment  where  most  prevail 
the  miseries  of  life  ?    Just  in  the  degree  in  which  you  are 


THE  MAN    PROM    MARS.  263 

already   emancipated   from   these   barren   illusions,   does 
your  most  humane  work  in  social  progress  appear. 

Your  inspirations  of  goodness  come  to  you  as  they 
come  to  us,  without  the  necessity  of  a  revelation.  Their 
encouragement  is  more  faithfully  secured  by  the  benign 
influence  which  rewards  their  adoption,  than  those  written 
codes  among  you  v/hich  assume,  under  doubtful  motives, 
their  direction  and  control.  As  surely  as  all  the  forces  of 
nature  may  be  traced  to  the  heat  of  the  sun,  so  your 
impulses  of  virtue,  your  heroism  of  good  deeds,  and  your 
spiritual  hopes,  are  conveyed  to  you  in  a  germinal  state 
without  any  intercepting  medium,  with  the  first  breath  of 
of  your  bodies  ;  to  be  improved,  enlarged  and  harvested 
for  the  purposes  and  uses  of  society. 

You  turn  over  the  surface  of  the  Earth  and  gather  its 
fruits,  never  doubting  the  superhuman  forces  in  conjunc- 
tion which  reward  your  labor ;  and  yet  your  intellectual 
tillage  is  left  to  take  its  chances  among  circumscribed 
opportunities  which  no  combined  effort  has  attempted  to 
enlarge.  Your  progress  cannot  be  otherwise  than  uncer- 
tain and  your  governments  will  always  be  unstable  in 
their  foundations  under  your  system,  which  at  its  best 
furnishes  scarcely  one  disciplined  mind  in  a  hundred,  and 


264  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

the  acquirements  of  that  one,  too,  resulting  only  from  a 
spontaneous  individual  impulse,  with,  in  most  cases,  no 
higher  motives  than  self-gain  and  advancement. 

Your  fields  are  not  wanting  in  your  attentions.  You 
bring  profit  to  yourselves  by  the  thorough  tillage  of 
your  acres.  You  multiply  by  your  manipulation  under 
nature's  hints  the  life-supporting  and  pleasure-giving 
properties  of  the  fruits  and  flowers  of  the  Earth  to  the 
extremest  blossoming  and  abundance.  And  yet  in  such 
a  state  of  general  crudity  is  your  own  divine  essence  of 
reason  and  thought,  that  to  this  day  no  superstition  is 
too  absurd,  no  sophistry  too  transparent,  and  no  pre- 
tended reform  too  ill  digested  to  take  root  and  flourish, 
even  to  the  disintegration  of  large  patches  of  your  social 
life.  So  that  while  no  fault  can  be  found  with  your  pro- 
gress in  the  handling  of  the  material  agents  under  your 
control,  the  opinion  is  irresistible,  from  our  point  of  view, 
that  you  are  assiduously  cultivating  everything  but 
yourselves. 


THK   MAN   FROM   MARS.  265 


CHAPTER  XV. 

"We  have,  like  you,  wealth  with  its  self-rewarding  lux- 
uries, but  itr  character  is  very  diflferent.  Its  chosen 
pleasures  and  inclinations  are  unlike  yours.  Acquisitive- 
ness has  no  such  controlling  motives  as  with  you.  The 
hope  of  social  elevation,  the  anxiety  to  place  the  suffer- 
ings of  poverty  beyond  reach,  and  the  love  of  power,  are 
not  elements  in  our  desire  for  gain.  As  an  inducement 
to  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  all  these  motives  are 
supplanted  by  the  one  overweening  passion  for  distin- 
guishment  which  its  possession  affords,  by  contributing 
to  the  well-being  and  happiness  of  others.  The  even 
opportunities  of  life,  and  the  entire  absence  of  poverty  as 
you  have  it,  with  its  miseries,  do  away  with  the  most 
fertile  stimulus  to  individual  greed  among  you ;  and  the 
strong  passion  to  hoard,  which  you  call  avarice,  becomes 
with  us,  from  the  singleness  of  its  motives,  one  of  the 
noblest  of  our  religious  aspirations.  Whatever  luxuries 
wealth  provides  for  itself  are  shared  by  all ;  and  since 
the  nature  and  form  of  our  society  precludes  the  necessity 


266  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

of  alms-giving,  charity,  as  you  understand  it,  is  unknown. 
The  general  dissemination  of  self-pride  and  independence, 
as  much  the  result  of  our  religious  beliefs  as  of  our  politi- 
cal and  educational  methods,  secures  us  against  those 
evils  of  indiscriminate  charity  which  are  found  to 
paralyze  industry  everywhere  upon  the  Earth,  in  its 
present  stage  of  development. 

In  our  political  system  we  have  provided  so  well  for  the 
even  and  sufficient  reward  of  toil,  that  our  animal  require- 
ments, so  easily  supplied,  are  never  wanting  in  individual 
cases  to  the  extent  of  suffering.  In  the  extremity  of 
invalidism  or  other  misfortune,  assistance  comes,  not  in 
the  form  of  charity  as  you  know  it,  but  as  the  anxious 
and  sympathetic  support  of  a  family  to  one  of  its  mem- 
bers in  distress.  The  field  of  benevolence  in  wealth  is, 
therefore,  entirely  within  the  province  of  education  and 
art ;  which  in  accordance  with  our  religious  aspirations 
and  beliefs,  takes  the  same  form  in  their  furtherance  of 
the  purposes  of  the  Deity  as  j^our  devotional  enterprises 
of  promulgating  your  religious  faiths. 

Our  rich  contribute  largely  from  their  substance  to  the 
purposes  of  education,  with  a  philanthropy  that  is  greatly 
intensified  by  the  religious  enthusiasm  gratified   by  the 


THK  MAN   PROM   MARS.  267 

act ;  but  they  do  not  build  nor  contribute  to  our  temples 
of  worship  as  yours  do,  since  the  attendance  upon  these 
is  unsolicited  and  voluntary,  and  a  mere  pleasureable 
gratification  of  our  spiritual  hopes  and  aspirations. 
Unattended  by  saving  forms  and  conditions,  as  with  you, 
the  worship  within  our  temples  is  not  considered  of  conse- 
quence to  our  spiritual  welfare.  These  religious  centers, 
unlike  yours,  assume  no  power  to  condone  or  compromise 
with  evil.  No  burdened,  unclean  conscience  comes  to 
them  with  the  hope  of  absolution,  to  return  again  laden 
with  its  misdeeds  for  another  purging.  No  wholesale 
peculator  brings  a  portion  of  his  evil  gains  as  an  atone- 
ment for  the  inflicted  miseries  of  his  avaricious  career. 
There  is  nothing  whatever  within  our  temples  or  sur- 
rounding them,  but  the  peace  and  self  conscious  satifac- 
tion  of  the  divine  co-operation  in  our  efforts  to  cultivate 
ourselves,  and  the  praise  and  glory  of  our  own  success 
forms  the  spirit  of  our  worship. 

Our  society  being  without  exclusiveness,  and  the  osten- 
tation of  richess  a  thing  unknown,  there  is  no  ambition 
to  get  beyond  the  general  fare  in  dwellings.  The  whole 
city  block,  surmounted  by  its  one  continuous  roof,  may 
be  either  a  single  or  a  number  of  dwellings,    to   accord 


268  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

with  the  incomes  of  its  occupants.  Under  our  land  system 
the  cost  of  rent  is  such  a  small  item  in  the  living  expen- 
ses, that  all  are  enabled  to  share  alike  in  their  housings, 
and  to  equally  enjoy  the  benefit  of  our  wholesome  sani- 
tary provisions.  No  one  amongst  us  dwells  in  a  hovel. 
We  labor  that  the  surroundings  of  all  shall  be  uniformly 
pleasant  and  comfortable.  With  us  the  suspicion  of 
unseen  misery  is  enough  to  disturb  the  pleasures  of  life. 
Besides  the  unpleasant  suggestions  of  discomfit  which  a 
rough  and  incommodious  dwelling  would  arouse,  it  would 
be  considered  by  us  a  painful  violation  of  taste,  and  a 
sacrifice  of  the  opportunities  of  art. 

Consequently  within  the  limits  of  our  cities  you  will 
not  find  any  external  distinction  among  our  dwelling 
places,  to  denote  the  financial  standing  of  their  occupants. 
But  as  a  whole  block  becomes  occasionally  occupied  by  a 
single  family,  whose  large  fortune  enables  them  to  enjoy 
its  magnificent  proportions,  there  is  not  wanting  within 
those  luxuries  of  wealth  urged  by  the  prevailing  tastes. 
The  establishment  becomes  the  pride  and  pleasure  of  its 
locality.  In  conformity  with  all  other  of  the  city's 
blocks,  it  has  three  loftj'-  stories.  The  lower  one  on  each 
of  its  facades  consists  of  a  series  of  Corinthian   columns 


THE   MAN   PROM   MARS.  269 

with  highly  wrought  capitals,  resting  upon  which,  and 
forming  the  second  story  elevation,  are  a  line  of  arches, 
supporting  the  flush  outer  walls  of  the  story  above. 
This  story,  which  is  abundantly  lighted  by  its  transparent 
roof,  has  its  exterior  surface  decorated  in  bas  relief  with 
architraves  and  cornices  designed  in  our  elaborate  styles. 
Every  block  has  an  arched  and  vestibuled  main  entrance 
at  each  of  its  four  corners,  over  which  there  rises  a  tower 
containing  a  powerful  electric  light,  illuminating  at  night 
the  interior  as  well  as  the  surrounding  streets.  As  our 
thoroughfares  which  radiate  from  the  city's  center  are 
straight,  and  better  adapted  for  business  and  the  indus- 
tries, they  are  devoted  to  these  purposes.  Consequently, 
on  the  circular  or  concentric  streets  are  located  most  of 
our  dwellings ;  the  choicest  of  which,  as  to  location,  are 
those  fronting  the  parks,  which,  as  I  have  already  given 
j'ou  to  understand,  circumscribe  at  intervals  every  neigh- 
borhood of  the  city.  It  is,  then,  in  these  convex  or 
concave  fronts,  standing  on  opposite  lines  of  the  park 
belt,  that  the  abodes  of  wealth  are  mostly  to  be  found. 

You  w^ould  discover  the  whole  of  one  of  these  buildings, 
except  its  middle  story,  devoted  to  the  use  of  the  public, 
and  containing  on  its  first  floor  a  number  of  class  rooms 


270  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

assigned  to  a  system  of  teaching  to  which  your  kinder- 
gartens bear  some  similarity,  and  a  few  others  in  which 
the  scholars  have  advanced  to  a  higher  grade.  The 
character  of  the  instruction  would  be  indicated  by  the 
appliances  and  implements  of  industry  everywhere  to  be 
seen,  the  busy  use  of  them  at  intervals  by  the  classes, 
and  the  pride  and  emulation  of  the  scholars,  in  their 
struggling  efforts  toward  skill  in  their  handling.  In 
another  room  you  would  find  a  smaller  class,  the  special 
proteges  of  the  owner,  composed  of  a  few,  who,  by  the 
early  manifestations  of  an  unusual  promise,  were  being 
assisted  in  their  pursuance  of  some  branch  of  science  or  art. 

Outside  of  this  department  of  instruction  you  would 
find  an  extensive  library,  with  its  reading  room  attach- 
ments ingeniously  arranged  for  convenience,  and  a  large 
apartment,  usually  in  the  center  of  the  building,  well 
lighted  from  the  roof,  in  which  was  collected  the  art 
treasures,  and  upon  which  was  lavished  by  its  owner  that 
fondness  for  the  beautiful  which  becomes  him  as  a  mem- 
ber of  our  society. 

The  upper  story  is  a  public  assembly  chamber  for  occa- 
sions of  rejoicing  and  pleasure,  and  is  adorned  with  stat- 
uary, fountains,  and  blooming  plants.     This  grand  apart- 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  27 1 

ment  is  so  tempered  in  warmth  by  the  cheap  appliances 
of  our  municipality,  that  it  becomes  a  winter  garden 
during  our  long,  inclement  seasons,  when  the  parks  are 
sere  and  icy. 

One  of  these  establishments  would  suggest  to  your 
view  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  its  founder's  wealth.  In 
most  cases  his  income  extends  but  little  beyond  the  sup- 
port of  this  enterprise.  In  his  dream  of  wealth  he  has 
achieved  the  hope  of  his  ambition,  and  he  stops  there. 

Your  passion  of  hoarding  beyond  a  competency,  with- 
out purpose  except  the  lust  for  hoarding,  is  the  offshoot 
of  that  instinct  in  the  carnivorous  brute,  which  impels 
him  to  refuse  to  his  hungry  fellows  any  portion  of  his 
captured  carcass,  one-tenth  of  which  he  cannot  consume. 
This  low  and  brute-born  heritage  of  greed  only  fails  of  a 
better  suppression  in  your  society,  because  you  have 
neglected  to  entirely  remedy,  by  your  political  methods, 
the  generally  precarious  way  in  which  your  animal  and 
intellectual  wants  are  supplied.  Suffering  now  follows 
just  as  close  to  a  miss  in  your  struggles  for  sustenance, 
as  it  did  when  your  skin-clad  hunters  failed  of  their 
game. 

Your  passion  to  get  and  hold   is  intensified  and  brutal- 


272  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

ized  in  its  lack  of  regard  for  the  consequences  to  others, 
by  the  large  number  of  artificial  necessities  only  attainable 
in  your  society  by  a  considerable  accumulation  of  money, 
the  want  of  which  implies  degredation,  and  a  sacrifice  of 
many  things  that  have  grown  to  be  dear  to  life.  Every 
addition  to  the  savings  removes  to  a  greater  distance  that 
dreaded  condition  of  your  civilization,  known  as  poverty. 
The  insatiable  character  of  the  hoarding  is  not  unlike 
the  motive  of  overcaution  in  a  wanderer,  who,  terrorized 
by  the  appearance  of  a  dreaded  animal  in  his  path, 
increases  his  distance  by  flight  far  beyond  all  possible 
approach  of  the  dangerous  presence. 

Your  breathless  pursuit  of  wealth,  beyond  all  reason- 
able limit  of  obtaining  the  objects  of  desire,  is  induced 
also  by  the  remarkable  opportunities  its  possession  affords 
to  appropriate  the  earnings  of  industry.  The  capacity  of 
your  wealth  to  absorb  and  control  the  fruits  of  toil  exists 
in  a  geometrical  ratio  of  increase  with  the  greater 
wealth  employed,  and  the  taste  of  power  once  felt  is 
seldom  appeased,  but  increases  with  every  money  addi- 
tion. Under  your  favorable  laws,  it  may  extend  to  the 
privilege  of  a  single  individual  exacting  the  whole  surplus 
earnings  of  an  army  of  busy  workers. 


TH:e    MAN    PROM    MARS.  273 

Through  centuries  of  legislation  and  usuage  you  have 
established  various  processes,  by  which  wealth  is  enabled 
to  extract  an  undue  portion  of  the  earnings  of  industry. 
Among  these  processes  may  be  named  rates  of  interest 
on  money  graded  to  the  necessities  of  borrowers,  rents 
gauged  by  the  ability  of  tenants  to  pay,  monopoly  sup- 
plies with  prices  fixed  just  below  the  point  of  compelled 
abstinence,  variations  in  the  value  of  mediums  of 
exchange,  with  other  unsuppressed  agencies  promoting 
frequent  change  of  values  for  the  opportunites  of  capital 
and  the  distress  of  labor  ;  stupendous  aggregations  of 
wealth  reversing  the  laws  of  economy  by  advancing  the 
price  of  necessities  on  the  one  hand  and  depressing  the 
wages  of  labor  on  the  other ;  and  more  successful  than 
all,  a  system  of  land  proprietorship  which  permits  holders 
of  the  Karth's  surface,  in  addition  to  their  privilege  of 
exacting  a  large  portion  of  the  profits  of  industry  in  rent, 
a  further  right  to  pocket,  in  the  form  of  appreciated 
values  of  their  land,  an  unearned  share  of  the  collective 
fruits  of  the  industries  which  surround  them. 

Our  divergent  views  of  existence  are  exemplified  in  the 
care  we  have  taken  to  provide  for  an  evener  division  of 
the   products   of   industry.      With    us,    property   is   the 


274  "^^^   '^^'^   FROM    MARS. 

means,  and  not  the  end,  be5'ond  which  there  are  any 
number  of  attainments  in  life  incomparably  more  desire- 
able  and  beneficial  to  society,  and  our  legislation  has  been 
directed  chiefly  to  the  care  and  cultivation  of  these.  The 
great  aim  of  our  government  has  been  to  provide  for  the 
well-being  of  persons,  while  it  may  be  said  of  yours  that 
the  most  attention  has  been  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
property  ;  by  which  is  meant  its  protection  and  increase, 
regardless  of  the  manner  of  its  distribution,  or  the  doubt- 
ful methods  of  its  extraction  from  the  energies  of  labor. 
In  the  pursuit  of  this  policy  you  are  only  perpetuating, 
without  much  change,  your  primitive  conditions,  when 
the  strong  arm  gathered  the  most  of  the  wealth.  Your 
early  born  instincts  do  not  seem  sufficiently  evolutionized 
to  co-operate  in  any  undertaking  which  denies  opportu- 
nities of  the  strong  over  the  weak ;  and  the  unhappy 
consequence  is  a  society  so  mercenary  that  the  general 
estimate  among  you  is  not  from  any  quality  which  indi- 
cates a  nearness  to  the  Deity,  but  principally  from  the 
cool  numerical  calculations  of  property  attachments. 

The  unity  of  our  spiritual  and  temporal  interests 
makes  it  necessary  that  every  government  act  shall  be  a 
religious  one.     The  spirit   of  kindness,  and  charity  to  all 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  275 

which  is  the  only  deserving  part  of  your  religions,  we 
have  taken  as  the  foundation  of  all  our  public  acts,  and 
have  made  it  the  cornerstone  of  government  itself.  Our 
legislation,  if  the  mere  assent  to  measures  recommended 
can  be  called  by  that  name,  considers  first  the  welfare  of 
persons  comprising  the  whole,  subservient  to  which  every 
possible  interest  must  take  its  place.  And  the  welfare  of 
persons,  in  our  politico-religious  point  of  view,  is  depen- 
dent upon  the  proper  and  equitable  rewards  of  industry  ; 
their  equal  opportunities  of  acquiring  knowledge  ;  an 
encouragement  of  their  morality  by  a  recognition  of  their 
\drtues,  making  it  the  necessary  stepping-stone  to  their 
advancement ;  and  the  sweeping  away  of  every  social 
form  which  establishes  a  sense  of  inferiority,  destroys  the 
pride  of  self,  and  institutes  that  feeling  of  degradation 
which  is  the  most  prolific  source  of  evil  in  society. 

It  is  easy  to  note  your  tendency  in  these  directions. 
The  barbaric  institution  of  force  and  its  concomitant  of 
fear,  as  agencies  in  the  management  and  control  of  men, 
is  gradually  being  eliminated  from  all  your  progressive 
governments,  and  the  better  methods  of  assent  and  co-op- 
eration are  getting  in  their  salutary  work  of  emancipation. 
Knowledge   is   spreading  itself  among  you — no  longer  a 


276  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

dessert  only  upon  a  few  favored  tables,  but  a  chief  dish 
under  the  newly  acquired  appetites  of  the  many.  The 
glamour  of  your  wealth  and  the  impressiveness  of  your 
religion  are  losing  their  reverential  respect,  with  the 
focussed  light  directed  upon  their  doubtful  origins.  You 
have  inaugurated  the  beginning  of  a  new  faith,  with 
better  spiritual  foundations,  not  comdemning  the  world 
and  its  society,  but  loving  it,  following  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  divine  presence  within  its  limits,  taking  a  hand 
in  its  affairs,  and  directing  them  towards  the  better 
possibilities  in  view. 

Ah,  my  brother,  the  coming  of  your  Messiah  was  both 
more  and  less  than  you  have  imagined.  The  era  of  new 
and  better  things  in  social  development  is  preceded  by  the 
gradual  decay  of  old  convictions,  which  have  served  their 
time  and  are  no  longer  useful,  except  in  their  place  within 
the  catalogue  of  traditions  to  mark  the  progress  of  thought. 

Society  assumes  its  beliefs  under  an  impulse  of  progres- 
sion, as  much  controlled  by  evolutionary  laws  as  the 
organic  substances  of  the  Earth.  No  one  can  teach  the 
world.  With  a  free  exercise  of  its  intellectual  faculty,  it 
teaches  itself.  The  power  of  an  idea,  among  the  moral 
forces,  is   in   its   corresponding   with   a   proper  stage  of 


THE   MAN   FROM   MARS.  277 

development  to  receive  it.  A  solitary  thought  is  useless, 
as  a  moral  agent,  without  its  already  existing  half-formed 
figments  scattered  about  in  society.  Its  power  to  move 
lies  in  the  coalescence  of  its  parts.  Ideas  and  beliefs 
have  been  adopted  at  different  stages  of  your  civilization, 
and  have  served  as  great  motors  to  progress,  which,  ages 
before,  were  enunciated  without  impression.  Society  rids 
itself  of  its  rudimentary  impressions  and  beliefs,  in  much 
the  same  manner  that  an  animial,  under  changing  envi- 
ronments, sheds  its  old  organs  and  develops  new  ones. 
Every  new  belief  affecting  society  is  subservient  to  it, 
and  is  only  adopted  slowly  and  by  degrees.  If  it  be  a 
truth  making  its  way,  its  final  installation  is  marked  by 
an  unquestioned  acquiescence  and  an  undisturbed 
tranquility.  If  an  error,  agitation  and  unrest  mark  the 
whole  period  of  its  accession. 

The  coming  of  your  Messiah  was  more  than  you  have 
supposed,  because  grander  and  more  imposing  than  its 
assumed  supernaturalisms  was  its  enthronement  of  two 
central  ideas.  One  was  the  adoption  of  the  sentiment  of 
brotherhood  as  a  means  of  adjusting  the  relations  of  men 
with  each  other,  and  the  other  was  the  inauguration  of 
spiritual  hope  as   a  guide  in  the  actions  of  life.     Out  of 


278  THE   MAN   FROM   MARS. 

this  beginning  has  come  all  that  is  good  in  your  social 
progress.  The  general  acceptance  of  these  ideas,  as 
agencies  in  your  civilization,  began  its  work  by  weaken- 
ing the  old  society,  and  it  finally  destroyed  it  by  extin- 
guishing the  bands  of  physical  force  which  held  it 
together.  The  cultivation  of  these  inspirational  beliefs 
in  their  purity,  as  they  were  bestowed  upon  you  by  the 
divine  intelligence,  would  have  soon  brought  to  you  the 
same  peace  and  good  will  that  they  have  shed  upon  the 
inhabitants  of  Mars ;  but  you  were  not  to  be  indulged  so 
soon  in  this  happy  offering.  The  few  who  had  been 
dominating  the  many  for  ages,  appropriating  their  earn- 
ings, and  even  sacrificing  their  lives,  in  a  lust  for  power 
and  wealth,  were  not  to  let  escape  them  so  fine  an  oppor- 
tunity to  hold  the  simple-minded  by  a  new  agency,  ten- 
fold more  subjugating  than  the  old  method  of  coercion 
by  force.  The  religious  superstition  of  the  age,  a  mere 
diversion  for  the  untaught  multitude,  inert  and  unprom- 
ising, was  vitalized  by  the  infusion  of  these  new,  humane 
and  spiritual  impulses;  and,  with  many  added  ingeniously 
contrived  supernaturalisms,  and  an  attractive  moral  code, 
it  was  built  up  into  a  system  and  organized  into  a  society 
which  has  borne  its  heavy  weight  upon  your  progress, 


THE  MAN    FROM    MARS.  279 

and  spread  its  dominion  more  successfully  than  the  war- 
like legions  it  supplanted.  It  has  accomplished  no  good 
which  is  not  entirely  due  to  the  irresistible  expansion  of 
the  truths  it  appropriated  at  its  inception  out  of  nature's 
evolutionary  process  of  social  development,  viz.,  the 
regard  for  one  another,  as  a  guide  in  all  the  actions  of 
life,  and  that  hope  eternal  which  spiritualizes  and  elevates 
our  existence. 

The  coming  of  your  Messiah  was  less  than  you  have 
believed,  because  you  have  mistaken  a  personality,  in 
which  the  genius  of  advanced  and  salutary  doctrines 
manifested  itself,  for  a  part  and  presence  of  the  Deity  him- 
self. As  the  promulgation  of  thoughts  that  were  con- 
ceived under  the  inspiration  and  pressure  of  a  natural 
force  in  the  process  of  social  development  is  less  than  the 
awful  presence  and  verbal  communication  of  the  Deity, 
so,  in  the  same  degree,  was  the  coming  of  your  Messiah 
less. 

But  you  will  have  a  second  coming,  my  brother, 
unperverted  by  the  craft  of  your  seers,  and  uncontamin- 
ated  with  the  superstitions  of  a  crude  society  like  the  first. 
It  will  be  of  you  and  a  part  of  you,  raising  you  up  to  a 
higher  esteem  of  yourselves,  glorifying  you  as  the  progen- 


280  THE   MAN    FROM    MARS. 

itors  of  all  good,  under  a  divine  and  irresistible  law  of  better- 
ment. It  will  relieve  you  of  the  evil  thoughts  that  have 
condemned  and  degraded  you.  The  new  hope,  like  a 
newly  discovered  strength,  will  push  out  in  all  directions, 
in  the  exercise  of  its  salutary  work.  Instead  of  discourse 
and  exhortation  to  the  lowly  and  down  trodden,  with 
promises  as  impossible  of  denial  as  of  verification, 
it  will  lift  them  upon  their  feet  by  the  strong  hand  of  a 
better  social  method.  I^ike  the  first  coming,  its  symbolic 
picture  will  be  carved  into  monuments,  reproduced  in  all 
the  departments  of  art,  and  cherished  as  the  chief  remin- 
der of  your  duties  and  obligations  to  the  Deity.  It  will 
be  no  symbol  of  anguish  and  sorrow,  like  the  first,  but 
in  place  of  it  the   divine  figure  of  a   strong  man 

SUPPORTING  AND  ENCOURAGING  A  WEAK  ONE.       YcS,   my 

brother,  you  will  have  a  s-e-c-o-n-d  c-o-m — 


What   is  all  this?     I   raise   myself  upon  my  couch 
The  sun  is  an  hour  up.      Through   my   window  I  see  an 


THK   MAN    FROM    MARS.  28 1 

enquiring  group,  marvelling  at  my  tardiness.  My  cows 
linger  for  their  milking,  and  utter  their  complaints  in  a 
gentle  lowing.  My  pet  deer  stand  with  their  large 
wondering  eyes  fixed  upon  me,  and  the  appearance  of  my 
face  at  the  pane  has  drawn  toward  me  my  whole  restless 
and  scramblinu  flock  of  poultry,  impatient  for  their  morn- 
ing feed.  I  look  toward  the  easy  chair  and  it  is  empty. 
My  celestial  visitor  has  departed. 


